Objective: To compare the validity and reliability of the Thai version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale with the Self-Esteem Visual Analog Scale.

Material and Method: The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was translated into Thai and its content-validity checked by back translation. The reliability of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale compared with the Self-Esteem Visual Analog Scale was then tested between February and March 2008 on 270 volunteers, including 135 patients with psychiatric illness and 135 normal volunteers. The authors analyzed the internal consistency and factor structure of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale-Thai version and the correlation between it and the Visual Analog Scale.

Results: The Cronbach’s Alpha for the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale-Thai version was 0.849 and the Pearson’s correlation between it and the Self-Esteem Visual Analog Scale 0.618 (p = 0.01). Two factors, viz, the positively and negatively framed items, from the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale-Thai version accounted for 44.04% and 12.10% of the variance, respectively.

Conclusion: The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale-Thai version has acceptable reliability. The Self-Esteem Visual Analog Scale provides an effective measure of self-esteem.

Keywords: Self-esteem, Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale, Validity, Reliability