There remains a flourishing interest in self esteem/self concept both in academic and clinical circles and popular literature. This paper elaborates various notions of the self and discusses the principles underpinning ways of measuring self esteem/self concept with children and adolescents. A review over the last 20 years indicates a raft of scales currently employed. The 14 most frequently cited are considered, with the top six measures and the latest British scale discussed in detail. The paper highlights issues and themes emerging from a comprehensive analysis of these scales, with a conclusion framed around assisting the reader to make an informed choice.

Self-esteem is an important notion within clinical practice, yet despite numerous initiatives in measuring the concept, most scales lack a theoretical foundation and are methodologically questionable, being author generated and psychometrically tested on small samples of college students. The Self-Image Profile for adults (SIP-AD), developed and validated on a large British population, is a brief measure (30 items) of both self-esteem and self-image. Through a cross sectional survey of 1,462 adults (17-65 years) across all regions of the United Kingdom, factor structure and convergent validity was assessed. Factorial validity revealed six factors, renamed Aspects of Self, confirmed through oblique rotation, in line with a theoretical position of multidimensionality of self-construing. Measures of internal consistency were 0.898 for Cronbach's coefficient α. Both self-esteem and self-image scores correlated significantly with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (.418 and -.424 respectively) and Tennessee Self-Concept Scale-2 (.557 and -.512). The format of the SIP-AD, with a visually available profile, fosters collaboration between respondent and clinician, which befits its employment in clinical practice.

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