(Taylor Media Services) A new study from the journal Child Development finds that pride in one’s ethnic or racial group is as important as personal self-esteem in the mental health of African American adolescents. Study leader Jelani Mandara, a psychologist at Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy, reported, “Our findings indicate that, regardless of self-esteem, as feelings of ethnic pride go up, mental health tends to increase as well.”

Conversely, the study suggests that even if a young person has self-esteem, if he or she lacks racial pride, their mental health can be negatively affected. Mandara co-authored the study along with Maryse Richards and Noni Gaylord-Harden of Loyola University in Chicago and Brian Ragsdale of Walden University. It was entitled “The Effects of Changes in Racial Identity and Self-Esteem on Changes in African American Adolescents’ Mental Health.”

Young Black males seemed to especially benefit from higher levels of racial pride. According to Mandara, “A rising sense of ethnic pride appears to be particularly helpful to boys in buffering against symptoms of depression.” However, the study was less definitive on how to go about instilling ethnic pride. But the seventh and eighth grades seemed especially important periods.

 The full study can be found in the November/December issue of the journal Child Development.