Construct Validation of the Self-Description Questionnaire II with a French Sample

Abstract

Summary: This investigation is a French validation of the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ) II, an instrument derived from the Marsh and Shavelson model and designed to measure adolescent self-concept. Previous theoretical and methodological considerations in SDQ research provided guidelines for the instrument “within-construct” validity. 480 students completed the questionnaire. Reliability and confirmatory factor analyses were used to demonstrate support for the good psychometric properties, the well-defined 11 facets of the multidimensional self-concept, the two remarkably distinct higher order academic areas, and the weak hierarchical ordering. Third-order HCFA models resulted in a hierarchical general self-concept modestly related to most nonacademic self-concepts and rather weakly to academic self-concepts. The present research strongly supports the multifaceted nature of self-concept, but cannot supply clear evidence for the usefulness of hierarchical representations of adolescent self-concept.