"But you don't look Puerto Rican": The moderating effect of ethnic identity on the relation between skin color and self-esteem among Puerto Rican women.

Abstract

This exploratory study investigated whether ethnic identity, as assessed by Phinney's (1992) Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, functioned as a moderator in the relation between skin color (as measured by masked interviewer evaluation, participant self-report, and skin reflectance data) and self-esteem (as measured by Rosenberg's 1989 Self-Esteem Scale). In a sample of 53 English-speaking Puerto Rican women, a hierarchical multiple regression indicated that among lighter skinned women, those who felt less attached to their culture had less self-esteem than those who were more culturally embedded. Similarly, among darker skinned women, greater attachment to Puerto Rican culture was associated with greater self-esteem than a less defined ethnic identity. Findings are discussed in light of the beneficial effects of ethnic identity.