title: [Measurement of global self-esteem in dementia. Reliability and validity of Brinkman's self-esteem scale].
abstract: In a person-centered approach to dementia-care, the self-concept of people suffering from dementia receives more and more attention. There is, however, a lack of direct measures of self-esteem, which is the evaluative component of the self-concept. An 8-item scale to tap global self-esteem was administered to 245 consecutive visitors of a psychogeriatric day care centre. Mokken scale analysis revealed a scalability coefficient of H = 0.44, which is in the medium range. The item responses were explained by a double monotonicity model, allowing for a reliable ordering of subjects and items on the latent trait 'self-esteem'. One-week test-retest reliability on the self-esteem scale was 0.68. Scalability and reliability were about equal across subgroups differing in severity of dementia. Patients were asked to give themselves a rating (1-10) for their estimated sense of self-worth. These ratings correlated 0.55 with scores on the self-esteem scale. Self-esteem was negatively related to measures of depression, fatigue and loneliness, but not to the level of cognitive impairment of the patient. As an independent measure of subjective well-being, self-esteem deserves particular attention in the assessment and treatment of dementia patients.
authors.affiliation: h.diesfeldt@vivium.nl
authors.forename: H F A
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Diesfeldt
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity