The Development of a Self-Esteem Scale for Children in Pakistan

Self-esteem is generally construe as an evaluation of one's self­ worth; its manifestation however, tend to vary considerably in different cultures. This study attempts to develop a scale for the assessment of self-esteem among school children in Pakistan. A list of 44 items of self-esteem was presented as a self report measure Self-Esteem Scale for Children, (SESC) to 346 children of 13-15 years old (48% boys and 52% girls) along with Rifai Self-Esteem Scale (Rifai, 1999). Factor analysis revealed three positive domains of SESC namely; Academic, Self Confidence, Social, and a negative one named Low Self-esteem. The psychometric properties of SESC were found to be satisfactory. The findings are discussed in terms of the structure of the self-esteem within the cultural context. Implications for theoretical construct of this research were also discussed.