Do particular groups, such as women and African Americans, suffer from low self-esteem? Describe the conclusions of research studies.

Particular groups, such as women and African Americans, are sometimes thought to suffer from low self-esteem. In fact, their self-esteem is often pretty healthy too, despite various alarmist claims that it is low. Women's self-esteem is only slightly below that of men's. The difference is largest during adolescence, and it seems to be large not because the self-esteem of adolescent girls is especially low but because many teenage boys are very egotistical. Women and girls tend to be critical of their bodies, whereas boys and men think their bodies are just fine, and this discrepancy probably accounts for most if not all of the gender difference in self-esteem. (There is no sign that women regard themselves as less intelligent than men, for example, or less able to get along with others.)
Meanwhile, African Americans actually have somewhat higher self-esteem than other Americans, though again the difference is not very large. Their high self-esteem makes African Americans somewhat unusual because other minority groups average lower than European Americans in self-esteem. Still, no group really scores very low in self-esteem; the differences are just a matter of whether the group regards itself as significantly above average, or closer to average.