Some researchers contend that the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale taps two dimensions of self-image, whereas others argue that the two dimensions (positive and negative) are merely an artifact of item wording. To directly test these competing views, we had 741 ethnically diverse university undergraduates take one of three versions of the 10-item Rosenberg Scale: the original version comprised of five positively worded and five negatively worded items, or one of two alternative versions comprised of 10 positively worded or 10 negatively worded items. Analyses indicated that the original version fit a two-factor model, whereas the reworded versions generally fit a one-factor model. All three versions had high validity for different ethnic groups, but the revised-positive version had less overlap with a measure of depression, and both revised versions had less overlap with a measure of self-deception. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Previous research has demonstrated that former foster care youth are at risk for poor outcomes (e.g., more problem behaviors, more depression, lower self-esteem, and poor social relationships). It is not clear, however, whether these findings reflect preemancipation developmental deficits. This study used 163 preemancipation foster care youth and a matched sample of 163 comparison youth. Results showed that foster-care youth did not differ from the comparison sample on measures of well-being, including depressed mood, problem behavior, and self-esteem. Foster care youth reported higher levels of work orientation, but lower levels of academic achievement, aspirations, and expectations. In addition, compared to the matched sample, foster care youth perceived better social environments with respect to their important nonparental adults (VIPs) and peers, but poorer social environments relating to their parents. These differences in social environments may have offset each other and resulted in similar levels of psychological well-being for the two groups of youth. Regression analyses further showed that social environments were linked to selected adolescent outcomes, and nonparental VIPs were especially important for the foster care sample. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

Anecdotal evidence suggests an increase in entitled attitudes and behaviors of youth in school and college settings. Using a newly developed scale to assess "academic entitlement" (AE), a construct that includes expectations of high grades for modest effort and demanding attitudes towards teachers, this research is the first to investigate the phenomenon systematically. In two separate samples of ethnically diverse college students comprised largely of East and Southeast Asian American, followed by Caucasians, Latinos, and other groups (total N = 839, age range 18-25 years), we examined the personality, parenting, and motivational correlates of AE. AE was most strongly related to exploitive attitudes towards others and moderately related to an overall sense of entitlement and to narcissism. Students who reported more academically entitled attitudes perceived their parents as exerting achievement pressure marked by social comparison with other youth and materially rewarding good grades, scored higher than their peers in achievement anxiety and extrinsic motivation, and engaged in more academic dishonesty. AE was not significantly associated with GPA. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

This short-term longitudinal study examined whether the social resources of important nonparental adults (VIPs) perceived by youth during their senior year of high school had a significant relation to their educational and socioemotional adjustment 1 year later. One month before their high school graduation, a multiethnic sample of youths (N=754) reported on their grades, educational expectations, and selected psychosocial characteristics (i.e., depressed mood and misconduct); the educational attainment and perceived psychosocial characteristics of an important nonparental adult in their lives; and the educational plans and perceived psychosocial characteristics of their close friends. Key measures were included in a mailed survey 1 year later. VIP characteristics (particularly their educational attainment) were associated with post-high school adjustment, even after controlling for previous level of youth adjustment and contributions from demographic and peer characteristics. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Research on Adolescence © 2010 Society for Research on Adolescence.

Theorists and researchers have raised the question of whether self-esteem has similar meanings and correlates in individualistic and collectivist cultures. This study examined the cross-cultural equivalence of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in four countries and compared its association with parental warmth and acceptance and depressed mood. Participants were 11th graders in the United States (n = 422), the Czech Republic (n = 490), China (n = 502), and Korea (n = 497). Cross-cultural similarities in the factor structure of the self-esteem scale and in the relations of self-esteem to other variables were more striking than cross-cultural differences. Across cultures, parental warmth was significantly related to both positive and negative self-image, each of which in turn was related significantly to depressive symptomatology. There was little evidence for the hypothesis that self-esteem would more strongly mediate the relation between parental warmth and adolescent depressive symptoms in the more individualistic (as opposed to collectivist) cultures.