Correlation of Female Trinidadians, Bermudians, Sri-Lankans' Feminist Identity Development, and Self-Esteem: Reflection of Social Role Theory

Abstract

Self-esteem and feminist identity development share symbiotic dyads. Agentic and communal characteristics shape females' identity and determine whether they see themselves as products or producers of their social system and display descriptive and/ or injunctive or prescriptive patterns of behavior. The aforementioned theoretical frameworks form the backdrop for my research which involved 40 Trinidadians, 20 Bermudians, and 38 Sri Lankans females ages 18 to 64. In my quantitative methodology study, I incorporated the Feminist Identity Development Scale (FIDS, Bargad & Hyde, 1991) and Rosenberg's (1965) Self-Esteem Model (RSE) to determine whether or not there was a significant correlation between Trinidadian and Bermudian females' self-esteem and feminist identity development. Descriptive statistics implementing a correlation matrix with the use of Mega Stats Add-Ins with Microsoft Excel determined that no significant correlation existed between Trinidadian and Bermudian female participants for their RSE and FIDS respectively. Additionally, one way ANOVA tests showed the correlation: (a) within sample group- Trinidadian females with no significant correlation between their FIDS and RSE; (b) within sample group- Afro and Indo- Trinidadians there was no significant correlation of RSE and a slight positive correlation of .0467 between participants' subscales of FIDS; (c) within sample group- there was no significant correlation between Bermudian participants' RSE but a significant negative correlation between subscales of FIDS; (d) within sample group- Sri Lankan females showed a significant negative correlation between subscales of FIDS; (e) among sample groups- Bermudian, Sri Lankan, and Trinidadian females there was a significant negative correlation among their RSE and no significant correlation of their FIDS. The findings corroborate other conclusions on FIDS and RSE and the social role theory.