ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Race and Ethnicity
This article is part of the Research TopicUnderstandings and Experiences of Colourism: Global PerspectivesView all 5 articles
Beyond Skin Shade: Examining Colourism, Body Esteem, and Self-Esteem in UK Black and South Asians Adolescents
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom
- 2King's College London, London, United Kingdom
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Colourism, a form of appearance-based prejudice in which people are penalised or privileged according to skin shade, hair and facial features, is a pervasive yet underexplored form of bias that affects minoritised ethnic populations. This study examined associations between experiences of colourism and body image and self-esteem among 552 Black and South Asian adolescents (Mage = 16.1 years) in the United Kingdom (UK). Participants completed an online survey that included measures of ingroup and outgroup colourism, internalised colourism, self-reported skin shade, skin shade satisfaction, body esteem, and self-esteem. Although findings indicated that, on average, Black and South Asian adolescents were not regularly subjected to colourism in their everyday lives, both ingroup and outgroup colourism were significantly associated with higher internalised colourism and lower skin shade satisfaction, lower body esteem, and lower self-esteem (all p < .001). Linear models showed that colourism predicted lower body esteem and lower self-esteem, even after controlling for demographics (e.g., gender, age), self-reported skin shade, and internalised colourism. Notably, ingroup colourism was a stronger predictor of low self-esteem than outgroup colourism though there were no differences between ingroup and outgroup colourism and the relationship with body image. Additionally, mediation analyses showed that internalised colourism mediated the relationship between ingroup colourism and both body image and self-esteem. This mediation pathway was not observed between outgroup colourism and both body image and self-esteem. This suggests that the relationship between colourism and wellbeing outcomes may be explained by different mechanisms based on whether colourism is experienced by one's own racialised group or not. Overall, findings highlight the psychological impact of colourism during adolescence, emphasising the need for culturally responsive interventions.
Keywords: colourism, body image, self-esteem, Black adolescents, South Asian Adolescents
Received: 18 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Craddock, Phoenix and White. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nadia S. Craddock, nadia.craddock@uwe.ac.uk
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