Self-esteem in adolescents: Validation of the state self-esteem scale

The goal of this research was to investigate the appropriateness of using the State Self-Esteem Scale (Heatherton & Polivy, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 895-910, 1991) with an adolescent population. The State Self-Esteem Scale (SSES) was designed specifically for measuring state self-esteem, which is defined as the temporary fluctuations in self-esteem. Studies have shown the SSES to be psychometrically sound regarding factor structure, content validity, and construct and discriminative validity. Through this psychometric analysis, the SSES has shown potential for use in a variety of areas. Because previous research regarding this instrument has utilized a predominantly adult population, mostly college students, there is a great need for an instrument with the potential of the SSES for use with adolescents. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.