Self-Esteem: Assessing Measurement Equivalence in a Multiethnic Sample of Youth

• NCJ Number: 219597
• Journal: Journal of Early Adolescence Volume: 27 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2007 Pages: 269-295
• Author(s): Marcia L. Michaels; Alicia Barr; Mark W. Roosa; George P. Knight
• Date Published: August 2007
• Length: 27 pages
• Grant Number(s): 5-P30-MH39246
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study evaluated the measurement equivalence in a sample of African-American, Anglo-American, Mexican-American, and Native American youth aged 9 through 14 years regarding the assessment of global self-worth and self-esteem.

Abstract

The findings indicated that all of the scales were measuring the same construct in two or more of the ethnic groups under analysis. This means that for the most part, self-esteem seemed to be related to developmental outcomes in a similar manner for the different ethnic groups. On the other hand, the results also revealed that some self-esteem measures might not be meaningful to certain ethnic groups or that the measurement instruments used for this analysis did not adequately represent the construct for those groups. Two factors emerged as providing the most promise for multiethnic research because they showed strong agreement across all groups: global self-worth and scholastic competence (a measure of self-esteem). On the other hand, the other measures of self-esteem--athletic competence, physical appearance, behavioral conduct, and social competence--measured the same construct in some ethnic groups but not in others. The findings thus provide evidence that common measures of self-esteem can be used to evaluate several different ethnic groups. Future research should focus on whether the nonequivalent items and scales were poor measures of the constructs under investigation or whether they reflected genuine differences between the ethnic groups. Participants were 1,337 students in grades four through eight at a low-income, inner-city school district. The ethnic composition of the sample included 579 Mexican-Americans, 420 Anglo-Americans, 131 African-Americans, and 207 Native Americans. Participants completed questionnaires that included a revised version of the Self-Perception Profile for Children, the Youth Self-Report Hostility Scale, and the Anti-Substance Abuse Attitudes Scale. In addition to global self-worth, five domains of self-esteem were measured: (1) scholastic competence; (2) athletic competence; (3) physical appearance; (4) behavioral conduct; and (5) social acceptance. Data were analyzed using a sequence of confirmatory factor analytic models. Tables, appendix, references