Is there gender bias in the short‐form Coopersmith Self‐Esteem Inventory?

Summary

The short‐form Coopersmith Self‐Esteem Inventory was completed by 802 16‐year‐old pupils attending state‐maintained schools in England. Overall, the boys recorded a significantly higher score of self‐esteem than the girls. Inspection of the individual scale items, however, indicated that, while boys were more likely to endorse ten of the items, another item was endorsed more frequently by girls. It is argued that gender differences in overall scale scores reflect the proportion of items which discriminate in favour of either boys or girls.

Keywords:

• self‐esteem
• Coopersmith
• gender
• secondary school