Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of State Self‐Esteem Scale: an analysis of data from a cross‐sectional survey of patients in the first four months after stroke

Aim. To establish the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the State Self‐Esteem Scale in stroke patients. Background. Self‐esteem is seen to enhance peoples’ ability to cope with disease: low self‐esteem may inhibit participation in rehabilitation and thus result in poor health and social outcomes. Although the Chinese version of the State Self‐Esteem Scale has been used as an outcome measure for stroke rehabilitation, no study has examined its factor structure in this patient group. Design. A cross‐sectional design. Methods. A convenience sample of 265 Chinese stroke patients (mean age 71·4, SD 10·3 years), with a minimum score of 18 out of a possible 30 for the Mini Mental State Exam recruited from two regional rehabilitation hospitals in Hong Kong. An exploratory factor analysis and an internal consistency analysis of the State Self‐Esteem Scale were conducted. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated between the State Self‐Esteem Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale to determine convergent validity. Results. The final factor solution comprised a three‐factor model with correlated constructs and accounted for 49·5% of the total variance. Significant negative correlations were found between the Geriatric Depression Scale and the State Self‐Esteem Scale subscale scores (r−0·31 to −0·55, p