The Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale and Harter's Self-Perception profile for adolescents: a concurrent validity study

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) is a widely used measure of global self-esteem. Although its psychometric properties have found considerable support, its relationship to a multidimensional scale of self-concept has yet to be investigated. The sample for this study consisted of 150 adolescents randomly drawn in equal numbers and equated by gender from grades 8 to 12. Along with the RSE, Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents was administered to assess the adolescents' self-concept in nine separate domains. Correlational and cross-validation multiple regression analyses found that the RSE total score and both its factor scores were strongly related to Global Self-Worth, supporting Rosenberg's conclusions that his scale is a measure of global self-esteem and that its two identified factors are essentially measuring one rather than two different constructs. Other findings include a gender difference, with females reporting significantly lower RSE scores, and modest correlational support for a grade level rise found in the literature.