Psychometric study of the social self-esteem inventory of Lawson et al. (1979)

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties o f the French version (Gauthier et al. 1981) of the Social Self-Esteem Inven tory (Lawson et al. 1979). Two groups were compared, patients lacking socia l skills (n = 166) and a control group (n = 150). Among the patient group, patients with an avoidant personality disorder (n = 28) and social phobic p atients bad lower mean scores than the control group, with the social phobi cs occupying a position in between. The principal component analysis indica ted that the questionnaire had a general factor. The Social Self-Esteem Inv entory appeared to have good internal consistency, satisfactory test-retest reliability and sensitivity. The convergent validity with another self-est eem questionnaire was satisfactory. Social Self-Esteem was moderately corre lated with assertiveness and depression.