Reliability in the use of the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale for educable mentally retarded adolescents

The Tennessee Self Concept Scale was administered in a 10-week test-retest situation to 39 educable mentally retarded adolescents. Low to moderate reliability coefficients indicated the need for more extensive normative information and for caution in evaluation of test scores in the study of EMR adolescents' self-concept. The obtained coefficients suggest the possibility that the self-concept of individual EMR adolescents is a more variable psychological characteristic than has been previously indicated in the research literature and that this variability needs to be more carefully assessed.