Cultural self, personal self: Links with well-being among Mexican American college students

Structural equation modeling was used to test relations among heritage-culture retention (i.e., adherence to Latina/o values, ethnic identity, and collective self-esteem), personal self-esteem, subjective well-being, and academic success for 446 Mexican American college students. Results indicated that the hypothesized model fit the data well. Personal self-esteem partially mediated the relation between heritage-culture retention and subjective well-being. Specifically, heritage-culture retention predicted personal self-esteem; and heritage-culture retention and personal self-esteem both predicted subjective well-being. The mediated effect of heritage-culture retention to subjective well-being via personal self-esteem also was significant. The relation of personal self-esteem to subjective well-being was significant for both genders, but stronger for women resulting in a stronger mediated effect of heritage-culture retention on subjective well-being for women than men. Contrary to the