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Questioning the General Self-Esteem Vaccine: General Self-Esteem, Racial Discrimination, and Standardised Achievement Across Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Gawaian H. Bodkin-Andrews*
Affiliation:
Centre for Educational Research, University of Western Sydney, Australia. g.bodkinandrews@uws.edu.au
Marjorie Seaton
Affiliation:
Centre for Educational Research, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
Genevieve F. Nelson
Affiliation:
Centre for Educational Research, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
Rhonda G. Craven
Affiliation:
Centre for Educational Research, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
Alexander S. Yeung
Affiliation:
National Institute of Education, Singapore.
*
*Address for correspondence: Gawaian Bodkin-Andrews, Centre for Educational Research, Bankstown Campus, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia.
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Abstract

Psychological research and the popular media culture have repeatedly noted that self-esteem positively contributes to life satisfaction and performance indicators across a large variety of domains. However, while varying measures of self-esteem may be argued to have a positive influence on outcome measures, increasing evidence suggests that perceptions of racial discrimination may also have a negative impact across a wide variety of outcomes. The current investigation used structural equation modelling techniques to examine the potential impact of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students' General Self-Esteem and their perceptions of racial discrimination on spelling and maths achievement. Results indicated that General Self-Esteem displayed little or no significant relations with the performance measures, yet perceived racial discrimination significantly and negatively predicted both spelling and maths achievement for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. In addition, no significant latent interaction between General Self-Esteem and perceived discrimination was identified, raising questions for the self-protective properties of General Self-Esteem, at least for achievement outcomes.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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