School Environment, Self-esteem, and Delinquency

The positive and negative effects o f one's school environment (and interracial contact within this environment) have been widely debated. A question o f great concern is whether the racial composition (e. g., school environ ment) o f a school affects one's self-esteem. The presen t study explored whether selfesteem, race-esteem, school commitment, and delinquency differ by the racial composition o f a school. Self-report questionnaires were administered to a random sample o f 1,100 high school students" in a large midwestern city o f the United States. The findings (a) suggest that all four measures differ by school environment, and (b) provide partial support for earlier studies claiming that, within racially homogeneous school environments, African American students, in particular, enjoy higher self-esteem. Moreover, this finding might suggest that racial diversity within certain school environments (e.g., mostly Caucasian or equally mixed) carries with it lower levels o f self-esteem. Higher rates o f self-reported delinquency, however, were found in the equally mixed school environment than in racially homogeneous school