Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
RSES
How do you actually feel about yourself? The RSES asks 10 direct questions about your sense of self-worth. No account needed.
What It Measures
The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) asks one basic question: how do you actually feel about yourself as a person? Not how you perform at work, not what other people think of you -- just your own sense of worth.
Morris Rosenberg came up with these 10 items in 1965 while studying adolescent self-image. It stuck around because it is short, gets the job done, and the data holds up across all sorts of populations.
Questions
10 statements -- some positive ("I take a positive attitude toward myself"), some negative ("At times I think I am no good at all"). You rate each from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.
Scoring
Add them up: 10-40. Higher score = higher self-esteem. Items 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 need to be reverse-scored first.
Score Guide
- 10-19: Low self-esteem. You are hard on yourself.
- 20-25: Moderately low. Below average but not critically so.
- 26-34: Moderate. Normal range. Most people land here.
- 35-40: High. Strong sense of self-worth.
Psychometrics
Internal consistency: alpha = .77-.88. Test-retest (2 weeks): .85. IRT confirms a single-factor structure, and measurement invariance holds across 53 countries.
Note
Self-check tool, not a diagnosis. If you are worried about your self-esteem, talk to a professional. RSES is public domain -- free to use.
Result Interpretation
Finish the 10 questions and you get your results straight away — no account needed, nothing to sign up for.
- Your score is calculated from your answers.
- What it means — a plain-language breakdown of where you fall.
- Context where available, compared against population norms.