Competing factor structures of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and its measurement invariance across clinical and non-clinical samples

Although several studies have investigated the factor structure of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), there are still disagreements about it. The present study assessed: a) the goodness of fit of nine competing factor models for the RSES using data from a clinical sample of 855 women with eating/weight disorders; and b) its measurement invariance across clinical and non-clinical (n = 943) samples. A bifactor model, with a general self-esteem factor, plus positive and negative method factors, provided a better fit with the data than alternative models. However, the results showed the high reliability of the general self-esteem factor, and a low reliability of the two method factors. Furthermore, the full metric invariance of the RSES, as well as a partial scalar invariance and partial strict invariance across clinical and non-clinical groups, was supported by our findings. The factor variances and means differed significantly across groups. Overall, the findings of this study showed that the factor structure of the RSES is contaminated by method effects due to item wording, also with clinical samples, and that respondents from clinical and non-clinical groups interpret the self-esteem construct of the RSES items in a substantially similar way.