Social capital and self-concept were measured in a sample of 86 primarily African American female adolescents before and after participating in the Cool Girls, Inc. program, and in 89 comparison girls. Two dimensions of social capital (the diversity of girls’ social networks and the number of life domains in which girls were able to access help) were examined. It was hypothesized that participation in Cool Girls would be associated with increases in social capital and that this would mediate the relationship between participation in Cool Girls and increases in self-concept. Cool Girls participants experienced increases in social capital. Cool Girls and comparisons both experienced gains in most domains of self-concept, except for behavioral conduct, that were related to increases in number of help domains. Furthermore, there was a significant indirect effect of participation on social acceptance, global self-worth, and body image mediated through number of help domains. Implications are discussed.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The author drew on sociometer theory to propose that self-esteem is attuned to traits that garner others??? acceptance, and the traits that garner acceptance depend on one???s social role. Attunement of self-esteem refers to the linkage, or connection, between self-esteem and specific traits, which may be observed most clearly in the association between self-esteem and specific self-evaluations. In most roles, appearance and popularity determine acceptance, so self-esteem is most attuned to those traits. At the same time, interdependent social roles emphasize the value of communal qualities, so occupants of those roles have self-esteem that is more attuned to communal qualities than is the general norm. To avoid the biases of people's personal theories, attunement of self-esteem to particular traits was assessed indirectly via the correlation between self-esteem and self-ratings (Study 2), with cognitive accessibility measures (Study 3), by observing the responsiveness of people???s self-concepts to social cues about the self (Study 4), and with an experiment involving social decision-making (Study 5). As hypothesized, self-esteem was generally more attuned to appearances than communal qualities, but interdependent social roles predicted heightened attunement of self-esteem to qualities like kindness and understanding.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1989.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin, School of Nursing. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin-Madison. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-52).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-126).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1989.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1992. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-83).