摘要：This study analyzes the relationship between self-esteem, in secondary school students, mainly of rural origin, with the ethnic condition, taken into consideration for this purpose the use of the language, in which we compare the Mayan speakers and non-Mayan speakers of a region of Yucatan, Mexico, in men and women. Quantitative, cross-sectional study, with a simple random sample of 1452 Yucatan high school students, by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The main results are that 22% of the population has a low self-esteem level, with significant differences by age (p = 0.028) and in negative self-esteem score in the variable Maya-speaker and not Maya-speaker (p = 0.023). There were also differences between the condition of rural and urban. The prevention and care of mental health in adolescence must take into account the peculiarities of cultural contexts and gender determinants, to strengthen the autonomy and self-esteem of new generations, educational programs based on studies that take into account the determinants social gender and ethnicity, now blurred before the global communication processes.
