Although self-esteem is a relatively new concept, first developed in the field of social psychology, it has gained increasing importance in psychiatry, especially as a diagnostic criterion. However, it is poorly evaluated in clinical practice. The lack of an instrument allowing an easy global assessment may be the reason for this. It is therefore a question of validating a short, one-dimensional self-esteem scale in French, possibly allowing an evolutionary follow-up by self-correction.

The study involved 106 patients with various psychiatric disorders, except psychotic disorder, stabilized or of varying severity. The creation of the original tool included 10 items. It was submitted to the selection of items followed by an exploratory factor analysis. The correlation between the items and the measurement of consistency and convergent validity were then performed.

The evaluation of acceptability and distribution of results led to the selection of 6 items. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a unique dimension and good reliability (Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.89). No item displays correlations with a total score of less than 0.50 and the concept of construct is consistent. There is also a good internal consistency which confirms that the 6-item ESD version is optimal.

This new, validated scale will allow therapists to more accurately investigate the notion of self-esteem in a clinical or research setting.