This article describes two studies investigating the reliability and factorial validity of scores on the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ) for assessing self-evaluations relating to peers, school, family, sports/athletics, body image and global self-worth in South African adolescents. Participants were 900 learners enrolled in Grades 8 and 11 at public schools In Cape Town, and 116 Grades 8 and 11 learners attending independent schools. The results provided general support for the six-factor structure proposed by DuBois, Feiner, Brand, Phillips and Lease (1996) and indicated that SEQ scores have good internal consistency and adequate test-retest reliability for English-speaking South Africans. However, minor revisions are needed for all scale scores to have acceptable internal consistency when translated into isiXhosa or Afrikaans.
BedeianA. G.TeagueR. J.Jr.ZmudR. W. (1977). Test-retest reliability and internal consistency of short-form of Coopersmith's self-esteem inventory. Psychological Reports, 41, 1041–1042.
2.
BentlerP. M.BonettD. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 588–606.
3.
BossonJ. K.SwannW. B.Jr.PennebakerJ. W. (2000). Stalking the perfect measure of implicit self-esteem: The blind men and the elephant revisited?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 631–643.
4.
BrenerN. D.CollinsJ. L.KannL.WarrenC. W.WilliamsB. I. (1995). Reliability of the Youth Risk Behavior Questionnaire. American Journal of Epidemiology, 141, 575–580.
5.
CohenJ. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37–46.
6.
CoopersmithS. (1967). The antecedents of self-esteem.San Francisco, CA: Freeman.
7.
DuBoisD.FeinerR. D.BrandS.PhillipsR. S. C.LeaseA. M. (1996). Early adolescent self-esteem: A developmental-ecological framework and assessment strategy. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 6, 543–579.
8.
FleissJ. L. (1981). Statistical methods for rates and proportions (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
9.
GerbingD. W.AndersonJ. C. (1992). Monte Carlo evaluations of goodness-of-fit indices for structural equation models. Sociological Methods and Research, 21, 132–160.
10.
HarterS. (1985). Manual for the self-perception profile for adolescents.Denver, CO: University of Denver.
11.
HarterS. (1988). Manual for the self-perception profile for children.Denver, CO: University of Denver.
12.
HarterS. (1998). The development of self-representations. In EisenbergN. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (5th Ed.): Vol. 3. Social, emotional and personality development (pp. 553–617). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
13.
HuL.-T.BentlerP. M. (1995). Evaluating model fit. In HoyleR. H. (Ed.), Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues and applications (pp. 76–99). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
14.
JessorR. (1991). Risk behavior in adolescence: Apsychosocial framework for understanding and action. Journal of Adolescent Health, 12, 597–605.
15.
LandisJ. R.KochG. C. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159–174.
16.
MaclureM.WillettW. C. (1987). Misinterpretation and misuse of the kappa statistic. American Journal of Epidemiology, 126, 161–169.
17.
MarshH. W.BallaJ. R.McDonaldR. P. (1988). Goodness-of-fit indices in confirmatory factor analysis: The effect of sample size. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 391–410.
18.
McGeeR.WilliamsS. (2000). Does low self-esteem predict health compromising behaviors among adolescents?Journal of Adolescence, 23, 569–582.
19.
NunnallyJ. C.BernsteinI. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
20.
RobertsonB.BergerS. (1994). Child psychopathology in South Africa. In DawesA.DonaldD. (Eds), Childhood and adversity: Psychological perspectives from South African research (pp. 154–176). Cape Town, South Africa: David Philip.
21.
RosenbergM. (1979). Conceiving the self.New York: Basic Books.
22.
RydenM. B. (1978). An adult version of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory: Test-retest reliability and social desirability. Psychological Reports, 43, 1189–1190.
23.
ShroutP. E. (1995). Reliability. In TsuangM. T.TohenM.ZahnerG. E. P. (Eds), Textbook in psychiatric epidemiology (pp. 213–227). New York: Wiley-Liss.
