Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Black Psychology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Palmer, C. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Body Mass Index, Self-Esteem, and Suicide Risk in Clinically Depressed African American and White American Females

Charles James Palmer, Jr.

P.O. Box 6723, Athens, GA 30604-6723, charlesp{at}armc.org

Self-esteem and depression, as well as depression and body mass index (BMI), have consistently been found to be significantly associated for African American and White American females. The results are dissimilar when BMI and self-esteem are studied. Historically, the relationship between BMI and self-esteem is weak or nonexistent for African American females; however, for White American females, the relationship is usually significant. The goal of this study was to determine whether clinically depressed, healthy-weight, overweight, and obese females would differ significantly on self-esteem and suicide risk measures. In a voluntary hospital-based inpatient psychiatric unit, 165 clinically depressed females completed the self-esteem rating scale and the suicide risk scale. Healthy-weight, overweight, and obese African American females did not differ significantly on measures of self-esteem and suicide risk. However, depressed, obese White American females had significantly lower self-esteem and increased suicide risk than depressed healthy-weight and overweight White American females. Implications of the current results are discussed.

Key Words: body mass index • self-esteem • depression

Journal of Black Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 4, 408-428 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0095798403256890
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?