Self-esteem, the evaluative manner in which one judges herself or himself; forms the foundation of emotional well-being. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of Mexican American female adolescents' self-esteem with body image, exercise behavior, and bodyfatness. Two hundredfifty-four subjects, ranging in agefrom 13 to 15 years, were drawn from a predominantly Mexican American population located in the LowerRio Grande Valley region of Texas. Data were gathered through a self-report instrument consisting of self-esteem, body image, and exercise involvement scales and anthropometric measures. Results indicated significant positive relationships between self-esteem and body image and exercise involvement and a significant negative relationship between self-esteem and bodyfatness. Body image,followed by exercise, exerted the strongest explanatory power of subjects'self-esteem scores. Findings suggest that a degree of body distortion exists in female Mexican American adolescents.
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