E. Greenberger etal. | Personality and Individual Differences 35 (2003) 1241-1254 1245 Table 1 The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and two re-worded versions* The original RSES Revised-negative version Revised-positive version 1. On the whole, I am satisfied ‘with myself 200d at all (—) 3. [feel that I have a number of good qualities 4, Lam able to do things as ‘well as most other people 5. [feel I do not have much to be proud of (—) 6. L certainly feel useless at times (—) 7. [feel that I'm a person of worth, or at least on an equall plane with others 8. I wish T could have more respect for myself (—) 9, Allin all, Tam inclined to feel that I am a failure (—) 10, I take a positive attitude toward myself 1. On the whole, Iam not satisfied with myself (—) 2. At times I think I am no good at all (-) 3. don't feel that I have many good qualities (=) 4, Lam not able to do things as well aS most other people (~) 5. feel I do not have much to be proud of (=) 6. certainly feel useless at times (~) 7. [feel that I'm a person of little worth, not on an equal basis with others (—) 8. I wish T could have more respect, for myselt (—) 9. Allin all, Tam inclined to feel that Tam a failure (-) 10. I take a negative attitude toward myself (=) 1. On the whole, I'am satisfied with myself 2. At times I think I am pretty darn good 3. [feel that I have a number of good qualities 4, Lam able to do things as well as most other people 5. L feel I do have much to be proud of 6. really feel useful at times 7. [feel that I'm a person of worth, or at least on an equal plane with others 8. T think I have enough respect for myself 9, All in all, Iam inclined to feel ‘that Tam not a failure 10, 1 take a positive attitude toward myself © — Indicates items that were reverse-scored when calculating the total selEesteem score. worded items in the original scale have been rephrased in a positive direction, resulting 10-item scale with all positively worded statements (Table 1). It should be noted that adapting previously positively worded items to a negative version, and vice versa, was usually a matter of inserting or deleting the word “not” or changing a negative word to a positive one (e.g. “useless” from Original RSES, to “useful” for the Revised-positive version). However, in some instances modest additional changes were necessary. In the case of item 8, for example, Rosenberg’s origi- nal phrasing “I wish I could have more respect for myself” (a negative item) was revised to read, “I think T have enough respect for myself ” for the Revised-positive version. A more literal “conversion,” such as “I do not wish I could have more respect for myself,” seemed linguistically awkward and difficult to comprehend. On all versions, respondents answered on a six-point Likert scale, from “1” = Strongly disagree to “6"= Strongly agree. Total Self-Esteem scores were calculated as follows: For RSE, the mean score for the positively worded items and the reverse-scored, negatively worded items; for Revised-negative version, the mean for all items after each item had been reverse-scored; for Revised-positive version, the mean of all responses as reported by participants. Cronbach's alpha for total Self-Esteem was 0.88 for Original RSES, 0.91 for Revised-negative version, and 0.92 for Revised-positive version,