Instruments for Measuring Self-Esteem
Instruments that measure self-esteem generally fall into one of four categories, each with certain limitations: behavioral trace reports, direct observations, projective techniques, and self-reports (Knapp 1973). Behavioral trace reports attempt to base judgments on concrete behaviors, such as grades and teachers' comments, thereby eliminating observer bias; problems with memory (e.g., the teachers') and validity (e.g., grades) do exist, however. Direct observations are used with very young children who are not yet able to communicate effectively on a verbal level; but it is possible that the values, feelings, and attitudes of the observer may bias the results. Projective techniques can reveal unconscious processes in children and adults, but scoring procedures are difficult and may be neither objective nor valid. Self-reports are practical and easily scored, but respondents may manipulate their self-reports to obtain desirable results (e.g., to elicit sympathy from the observer). Of course, techniques can be combined in various ways to achieve reliability, but this makes assessment more expensive.
Hughes (1984) reviewed the nineteen most-used instruments for evaluating self-esteem among children aged three to twelve, concluding that although therapists working with children and adults frequently cite changes in self-concept and self-esteem as goals, there is no widely adopted, coherent theory of self-esteem and the self-concept. She believes the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale to be the best for clinical application with children aged nine to twelve, because of its high reliability and validity, but she found no measure equally adequate for use with younger children. The McDaniel-Piers Scale was recommended for children aged six to nine because of its reliability and popularity. Hughes also recommends the Behavioral Academic Self-Esteem Scale as the best "teacher report" measure. She notes a distinction made in the literature between self-concept, as "the descriptive perception of the self," and self-esteem, as "the evaluative assessment of those descriptions" (1984, 659).
The Martinek-Zaichkowsky Self-Concept Scale for Children (Martinek and Zaichkowsky 1977) is designed to measure the "global self-concept of children from first grade through eighth grade." Children are given a self-report instrument that utilizes pictures instead of words.
The authors claim that the instrument is "culture-free." Although they have not yet established validity and reliability measures for this scale, as Wylie (1979) indicates in a review of the literature, there is a critical need for a well-validated scale that measures the self-esteem of younger children and that does not require the ability to read or understand English.
The Self-Observation Scale (Katzen and Stenner 1975) also utilizes a self-report instrument in assessing the self-esteem of children at the primary, junior high, and senior high school levels. The authors have completed a fairly extensive validation study of their instrument, and they maintain that it emphasizes the healthy and positive aspects of self rather than the more negative and pathological ones.
Katzen and Stenner use a "practical decision-making orientation" instead of the more traditional orientation of theory and research. According to the authors, the emotional development of children has not received enough attention; the emphasis in research has traditionally been on cognitive development. Their instruments are designed to help educators and psychologists attend more effectively to emotional development in this age group. Their instruments use written questions that are organized into seven scales: self-acceptance, self-security, social confidence, self-assertion, peer affiliation, teacher affiliation, and school affiliation. The forms developed for the primary school level use pictures for student responses, whereas the other forms use a verbal format.
The Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory (Battle 1981) provides instruments for use with children from grades one through twelve, as well as with adults. These instruments are designed both to help identify children, youths, and adults who are in need of psychiatric help and to provide general information for the professional helper or researcher. The author claims to have developed inventories that are useful with clients of all cultures and races.
The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (1975) is designed for subjects aged nine years and older. This instrument is based on a widely known study of self-esteem and has demonstrated a degree of reliability and validity that has made it very popular with researchers. Respondents are asked to check various columns of responses to questions.
The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS), developed by Fitts (1965), is one of the most widely utilized self-esteem scales. It is also one of the few well-developed measures of self-esteem for use with adults. Using self-reporting, it measures self-concept across many subareas, providing both an overall self-esteem score and a complex self-concept profile.
The ninety statements (evenly balanced for positivity-negativity) fall into one of five general categories: physical self, moral-ethical self, personal self, family self, and social self. Each category is divided into statements of self-identity, self-acceptance, and behavior. There are also ten items from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) lie scale. Each question has five response categories, from completely true to completely false. The TSCS yields an overall self-esteem score, a total positive score, along with self-esteem subscale scores related to different dimensions of perceiving the self.
The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965), originally developed for use with high school students, measures the self-acceptance aspect of self-esteem. The scale consists of ten Guttman-type items with four responses, from strongly agree to strongly disagree, which are, however, scored only as agreement or disagreement. The scale is designed with brevity and ease of administration in mind.