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Validation of Rosenberg self-esteem scale for Malaysian adolescents

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Abstract

The 10-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) has been widely used for measuring global self-esteem. This study aims to validate the Malay version of RSES (RSES-M) among Malaysian adolescents using confirmatory factor analysis. A total of 852 public secondary school students (51% males) from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between the ages of 13 and 17 years old completed a self-administered questionnaire that includes the RSES-M. Among the four alternative models of RSES-M, fit indices indicated that the two-factor model with nine items (RSES-M-9) fit best for the sample. Specifically, the positive and negative items loaded onto separate factors and item 8 – “I wish I could have more respect for myself” – was removed due to differences in meaning of the word ‘wish’ between English and Malay language. Besides, the RSES-M-9 demonstrated a good internal reliability. Taken together, the RSES-M-9 is a valid and reliable scale for measuring Malaysian adolescents’ level of self-esteem.

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Fig. 1

Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Kampar, Perak, Malaysia

    Chin Wen Cong

  2. Department of Psychology, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

    Jean Yi Cheong

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  1. Chin Wen Cong
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  2. Jean Yi Cheong
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Contributions

Conceptualization, C.W.C. and J.Y.C.; methodology, C.W.C.; formal analysis, C.W.C.; investigation, C.W.C.; data curation, C.W.C.; writing—original draft preparation, C.W.C. and J.Y.C.; writing—review and editing, C.W.C. and J.Y.C. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chin Wen Cong.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the UTAR Scientific and Ethical Review Committee (U/SERC/19/2019) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments on comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Cong, C.W., Cheong, J.Y. Validation of Rosenberg self-esteem scale for Malaysian adolescents. Curr Psychol 42, 17835–17838 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02960-z

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