In this study the aims were to investigate the rates of reliability of the Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) - Form A and to describe the self-esteem considering the variables gender and age, in the four dimensions studied by the Inventory. The subjects of this study were 142 children and adolescents from ten to 18 years old from a public school. The results referring to the reliability rates of the Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) - Form A showed that the reliability had pointed satisfactory rates, although the internal consistency analyzed through the item-total correlation indicated problems in same items. This results conduct to discussions concerning the transcultural adaptation of assessment instruments and this study's conclusions point to the need of improving the chosen instruments in future investigations, towards improving the internal consistency of the items.
Self-esteem; psychological assessment; test adaptation
