Psychometric Properties of the Revised Thai Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (r-TRSES) in Adolescents: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Rasch Modeling

Despite the widespread use of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), its validity in adolescents can be compromised by method variance associated with negatively worded items. The Revised Thai RSES (r-TRSES) culturally adapted problematic items, but its psychometric properties have not been established in Thai adolescents. This study examined factorial validity, reliability, and item functioning of the r-TRSES in 443 boarding-school students. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a bifactor model, indicating a dominant general self-esteem factor alongside residual wording-related variance. Rasch analysis further supported essential unidimensionality, showing acceptable item fit, strong reliability, ordered category thresholds, and no item showed substantial sex-related differential item functioning according to the prespecified criterion, although replication in larger and more sex-balanced samples is needed. Most variance in scores was attributable to general self-esteem rather than wording artifacts; however, targeting results indicated reduced precision at higher levels of self-esteem. The revised RSES8 functioned well, whereas the revised RSES7 showed comparatively weaker, though still acceptable, performance. Health-relevant concurrent validity was supported by strong associations with resilience (r = 0.589, p < 0.001) and depressive symptoms (r = −0.601, p < 0.001), which remained significant after adjustment for age and sex. Overall, findings support the r-TRSES as a reliable measure of adolescent self-esteem and suggest that culturally informed rewording, rather than item deletion, can preserve content coverage while maintaining validity. Future research should refine RSES7 and strengthen measurement at the upper end of the self-esteem continuum.