A COMPARISON OF CULTURE-FREE SELF-ESTEEM SCALE MEANS FROM DIFFERENT CHILD AND ADOLESCENT GROUPS

The Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory (CFSEI-2) was administered to 7 groups of children: 84 White Catholic school students from a New Orle ans suburb, 78 White rural public school students from Virginia, 62 Hi spanic Migrant students from Florida, 90 Aboriginal and White students from an isolated Canadian community, 199 African American students at tending an inner city school, 60 Hispanic and White international scho ol students from Venezuela, and 61 Innuit students from an isolated co mmunity in Labrador. The four older groups also wrote three words to d escribe themselves (the Adjective Generation Technique [AGT]). Signifi cant differences in responding between groups were found on all CFSEI- 2 scales and for AGT favorability means. Although several possible rea sons for these results are discussed, we conclude that the CFSEI-2 is not culture-free. Recommendations are: change the title of the test to avoid misrepresentation, limit test usage to elementary school childr en, develop an adolescent version with age appropriate language, and c onstruct local norms before using the CFSEI-2 to make decisions about a child's self-esteem. To determine relevance of scores, a team of pro fessionals and lay persons should review items from this or any test g iven to children who may be different from the normative or standardiz ation group.