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Self-Esteem

How do I generally evaluate and feel about myself?

Ten statements from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale about your overall evaluation of yourself.

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10 questions · About 2 minutesOur estimate

Validated Instrument

What it looks at

  • The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale measures global self-esteem: your overall positive or negative evaluation of yourself. Its statements touch on self-regard, a sense of worth and acceptance, and how capable you feel.
  • The statements ask whether you feel you have worth and good qualities, how satisfied with and respectful of yourself you feel, and whether you feel able to do things as well as most other people. That last part is about how capable you feel, not how capable you objectively are.

What it does not measure

  • It asks how you see yourself, not what you can objectively do. It does not measure intelligence, ability, talent, achievement, or your worth as a person, and it is not a diagnosis.
  • It is not a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, or any other condition.
  • It is not a measure of your worth as a person.
  • It does not measure intelligence, ability, talent, or achievement. Statements about feeling capable reflect how you see yourself, not what you can objectively do.
  • It does not place you in a “high” or “low” self-esteem category. There are no universal cut-off points for that.
  • It does not compare you with other people. No percentiles or population norms are used.
  • It does not explain why you feel the way you do, or predict how your life will go.

What you’ll see

You’ll see your total on a plain 0–30 line, a short description of how you answered, and what the result does and doesn’t mean. There are no categories, bands or comparisons with other people.

Evidence and research basis

Validated Instrument

A published questionnaire whose reliability and validity have been studied by researchers, used here with its items, response format and scoring unchanged. Infeee did not create or validate it.

How Infeee labels evidence

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). Developed by Morris Rosenberg and used here unchanged. Infeee did not create or validate the scale.

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale is a validated self-report instrument. Its validation comes from published research by others; Infeee did not create the scale or conduct those studies.

The ten statements, their order, the four response options, and the 0–30 scoring are used unchanged. Only the presentation is adapted for the web, such as “select” in place of “circle”.

The total is the scale’s score. Everything else on this page, including the descriptions, possibilities, and reflection prompts, is Infeee’s editorial, research-informed interpretation and not part of the validated instrument.

There is no universal diagnostic cutoff. The University of Maryland, which hosts the scale, notes: “There are no discrete cut-off points to delineate high and low self-esteem.”

Sources (3)
  1. Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  2. Rosenberg, M. (1989). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image (Rev. ed.). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
  3. Scale wording, instructions, and scoring key: Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, “Using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.”

Your privacy

Your answers are processed in your browser and aren’t saved — not on this device and not on our servers.

When you finish, you can choose to add the result to your Self Map. It’s saved only in this browser on this device, and you can remove it at any time.

Before you start

Instructions

Below is a list of statements dealing with your general feelings about yourself. If you strongly agree, select Strongly agree. If you agree with the statement, select Agree. If you disagree, select Disagree. If you strongly disagree, select Strongly disagree.

All 10 statements need an answer before a score can be calculated. You can go back to change an answer, or stop at any time.

This is a reflection tool, not a diagnosis. If you feel unsafe or need urgent help, contact your local emergency or crisis support service.

Ready when you are.

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