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Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory

(School Form) (CSEI-SC)

General Information on the Measure

Purpose of the The CSEI-SC measures self-concept, and it can be used for individual
measure diagnosis, classroom screening, or pre-post evaluation.

Main constructs Intrapersonal competencies

measured

Applicable grade Ages 8-15

levels

Publication year for 1967

the most recent
version

Year originally 1967

developed

Related measures

Measure Administration

Respondent Student

Method of Paper/Pencil, Digital

administration

Number of items 58

Item format "Like me" or "unlike me"

Administration time 25-30 minutes

Available languages Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, German, Greek, Spanish, Norwegian, Sesotho,
Setswana

Fee for use Fee charged by developer

Credentials required None

for administration

Scoring
Overall score An overall self-esteem score is reported.
reporting

Subscore reporting There are five subscores:

Lie scale
General self
Social self-peers
Home-parents
School-academic

Scoring procedures Scoring instructions are provided by the assessment developers with the
purchase of the license to use.

Interpretive Norm-referenced scores are available (percentile ranks).

information

Evidence of Technical Quality

Populations for which Technical quality evidence synthesized from several dozen studies, including
technical quality studies of 5th, 9th and 12th grade students in rural schools (Spatz &
evidence has been Johnston, 1973); intact 5th grade classrooms in one school district (Johnson
collected et al, 1983), 4th-8th graders (Kokenes, 1978), and 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th
graders from a large city (Ketcham & Morse, 1965).

Reliability evidence Internal consistency (alpha) estimates ranged from 0.61 to 0.71 for
subscales. Overall score reliability was estimated at 0.86 (Johnson et al,
1983). Test-retest reliability was estimated in separate studies and ranged
from 0.64 (three-year interval (Rubin, 1978) to 0.88 (five week interval
(Coopersmith, 1967).

Validity evidence
Evidence based on content
Content was reviewed by a researcher for alignment to theorized
constructs (Kokenes, 1974, 1978).

Evidence based on response processes

No information is available in the references reviewed.

Evidence based on internal structure

Factor analyses have found support for a multidimensional structure
(Kokenes, 1978; Ketcham & Morse, 1965), though the number of factors
has ranged from five to nine. Ketcham and Morse (1965) found support for
the five-subscale structure that is used for score reporting. No significant
differences in mean scores were found based on age and gender (Johnson
et al, 1983).

Evidence based on relations with other variables

Scores correlated with other measures of self-concept (Johnson et al,
1983), as well as with academic achievement. SEI scores were also found
to be significantly associated with creativity, resistance to peer pressure,
 willingness to express unpopular opinions and perceptual constancy
(Coopersmith, 1967). Scores have also been shown to predict perceived
reciprocal liking (Simon & Bernstein, 1971), perceived popularity (Simon,
1972), as well as communication skills and family adjustment (Matteson,
1974).

Locating the Measure

Obtaining a copy of www.mindgarden.com

the measure

References

Coopersmith, S. "The antecedents of self-esteem," Consulting Psychologists

Pr., 1967.

Johnson, Brian W., Doris L. Redfield, Richard L. Miller, and Robert E.

Simpson, "The Coopersmith self-esteem inventory: A construct validation
study," Educational and Psychological Measurement, 43 (3), 1983, pp. 907–
913.

Rubin, R. A. "Stability of self‐esteem ratings and their relation to academic

achievement: A longitudinal study," Psychology in the Schools, 15 (3), 1978,
pp. 430–433.

Ketcham, W., and Morse, W.C. " Dimensions of Children’s Social and
Psychological Development Related to School Achievement," Cooperative
Research Project No. 1286, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan,: Office of
Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1965.

Kokenes, B. "Grade level differences in factors of self-esteem,"

Developmental Psychology, 10 (6), 1974, pp. 954.

Kokenes, B. "A factor analytic study of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem

Inventory," ). . , Adolescence, 13 (49), 1978, pp. 149.

Matteson, R. "Adolescent self-esteem, family communication, and marital

satisfaction," The Journal of Psychology, 86 (1), 1974, pp. 35–47.

Simon, W. E. "Some sociometric evidence for validity of Coopersmith's Self-

Esteem Inventory," Perceptual and Motor Skills, 34 (1), 1972, pp. 93–94.

Simon, W. E., & Bernstein, E. "The relationship between self-esteem and

perceived reciprocal liking: a sociometric test of the theory of cognitive
balance.," The Journal of Psychology, 79 (2), 1971, pp. 197–201.

Notes

Measure summary updated October 3, 2018.

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