title: The measurement of self-esteem among Korean Americans: a cross-ethnic study.
abstract: Studies have indicated that Asians' self-esteem is generally lower than other ethnic groups'. The authors hypothesized that an item response bias would result in lower self-esteem scores for Asians. Specifically, it was hypothesized that positively worded items would be rated lower by Korean Americans but that there would be no difference on negatively worded items across ethnic groups. The hypothesis was tested using 214 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia who were Korean American, Caucasian, African American, or Latino. Results supported the hypothesis. Korean Americans had significantly lower self-esteem scores than the other 3 groups on all positively worded items but were no different from the other groups on negatively worded items. Additional analyses showed modest support for the cross-cultural construct equivalence of this measure of self-esteem.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social Welfare, Catholic University of Daegu, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Brekke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D044383:Black People; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000208:ethnology; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000208:ethnology*; D012649:Self Concept; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology