Reinvestigation of the Reliability and Validity of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in Iran

Self-esteem is defined as individual’s assessment of his or her own value. This concept plays a central role in psychological theory and research and is related to many indicators of positive functioning. Shapourian et al. study (1987) on Rosenberg self-esteem scale indicates that this scale has acceptable reliability (internal consistency) and is unidimensional. The aim of the present study was to reinvestigate the reliability and unidimensionality of this scale in an Iranian student sample, about 20 years after the original study. Nine hundred and seventeen students of the universities of after Tehran and Allame Tabatabaei (547 females and 370 males) participated in the study all completed ten-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to analyze the data. The internal consistency of this scale in the present study was .83 which indicates that this scale has an acceptable internal consistency. This confirms Shapourian et al. findings. Nevertheless, the analyses did not approve the unidimensionality of the scale. Similar to the findings of other countries, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that this scale had a two dimensional structure, namely, lack of self-derogation and self-liking.