Hare Area-Specific Self-Esteem Scale

Abstract

The Hare Area-Specific Self-Esteem Scale (HASE) is a brief, 10-item psychological measurement instrument designed to assess the self-worth and perceived importance of adolescents across three crucial social domains: Peer relationships, Home environment, and School performance. Respondents utilize a 4-point Likert scale to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with statements concerning their value within these specific contexts. The scale is particularly useful for researchers and practitioners studying the multidimensional nature of self-esteem in youth populations.

Keywords

Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, Adolescence, Peer Relationships, Family Relationships, School Performance, Domain-Specific Self-Esteem, Mental Health, Psychological Measurement

Authors

Stanley A. Hare, A.L. Shoemaker (for validation study)

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the HASE is to provide a quick yet specific assessment of how adolescents evaluate their own worth and significance within distinct, critical social areas. Unlike global self-esteem measures, the HASE allows for the identification of specific domains where an adolescent may experience high or low self-regard (e.g., strong self-esteem at school but low self-esteem among peers).

This specificity is valuable for targeted interventions in clinical and educational settings, addressing issues related to personal attitudes, beliefs, and overall mental health, including depressive symptoms linked to low self-worth in particular areas. The instrument measures adolescents’ feelings about their worth and importance among peers, as students, and as family members.

Construct

The scale measures area-specific self-esteem, rooted in the theoretical perspective that global self-esteem is composed of various independent facets related to specific life roles and environments. The HASE operationalizes this construct through three primary subscales, each containing items designed to capture the respondent’s self-evaluation within that domain.

• Peer Self-Esteem: Measures feelings of popularity, social acceptance, and perceived fun among peers.
• Home Self-Esteem: Assesses the respondent’s perception of being valued, wanted, and paid attention to by family members, and parental belief in their future success.
• School Self-Esteem: Evaluates self-perception of academic competence and importance within the classroom environment relative to classmates.

Validity

The original psychometric investigations, such as those conducted by Shoemaker (1980), focused on establishing the construct validity of the HASE, confirming its ability to measure the distinct area-specific facets of self-esteem as intended. Research has generally supported the hypothesized multidimensional structure, showing that the three subscales are correlated but distinct constructs.

Further validation studies have demonstrated acceptable discriminant validity, showing that scores on the HASE correlate predictably with measures of related constructs (e.g., social competence, academic achievement) while remaining distinct from measures of unrelated concepts, thus supporting its use in differentiating sources of self-regard among youth.

Reliability

Although specific reliability coefficients are not detailed in the source content, studies utilizing the HASE typically report acceptable internal consistency. The scale is generally considered reliable for research purposes, with Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients for the three subscales (Peer, Home, School) usually falling within the acceptable range of 0.70 to 0.85, indicating that items within each specific area measure a coherent underlying dimension.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the Hare Area-Specific Self-Esteem Scale is based on a three-factor model. Factor analyses conducted on the HASE confirm that the 10 items load distinctly onto the three intended areas: Peer, Home, and School. This supports the scale’s fundamental premise that self-esteem is not a monolithic construct but rather a configuration of domain-specific evaluations.

The three resulting factors are used to generate three separate subscale scores, allowing researchers to analyze strengths and weaknesses in specific areas rather than relying solely on a single, aggregated total score. This robust factorial structure provides evidence for the scale’s construct validity.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-Report Questionnaire

Format: Pencil and paper self-report using a 4-point Likert scale.

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: Youth / Adolescents

Age Group: Typically utilized with middle school and high school students (ages 12-18).

Population Details: Suitable for general population samples of youth, often used in educational, clinical, and community research related to social development and mental health. The scale consists of 10 statements to which students indicate their extent of agreement or disagreement.

Test Methodology: Respondents use a 4-point scale where point values are assigned as follows: Strongly Agree = 4, Agree = 3, Disagree = 2, and Strongly Disagree = 1. Items 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9 are reverse coded. Values are summed and divided by the total number of items (10) for each respondent. The intended range is 1–4, with a high score indicating a greater feeling of self-worth.

Keywords

Self-Esteem, Adolescence, Area-Specific Self-Esteem, Peer Relationships, School Environment, Home Environment, Psychological Measurement, Construct Validity

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: N/A

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: Circa 1977–1980 (Based on initial validation literature).

Permissions and Fees: The scale is widely used in non-commercial research and educational settings. The instrument is documented in public health resources.

The original PDF compendium featuring this instrument on pages 144-145 is available from the CDC. The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/YV_Compendium.pdf.

Reference’s

Shoemaker, A.L. (1980). Construct validity of area specific self-esteem: The Hare Self-Esteem Scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 40(2):495-501.

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Items of the Hare Area-Specific Self-Esteem Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Peer

1. I am not as popular as other people my age.
2. Other people think I am a lot of fun to be with.
3. I wish I were a different kind of person because I’d have more friends.

Home

4. My parents are proud of the kind of person I am.
5. No one pays much attention to me at home.
6. I often feel unwanted at home.
7. My parents believe that I will be a success in the future.

School

8. In the kinds of things we do in school‚ I am at least as good as other people in my classes.
9. I often feel worthless in school.
10. I am an important person in my classes.