A contribution to the validation of the piers-harris children's self-concept scale 2 on a non clinical sample of Italian children and preadolescents

The present work aims to validate the Italian version of Piers-Harris children's self-concept scale 2, assessing the self-concept, a central aspect of self-definition. An adapted version of the Piers-Harris children's self-concept scale 2 was administered to 938 Italian students (54% females, aged 8 to 14 years old). A confirmatory factor analysis has been performed to validate the original 6-factors model, including multifactorial and bifactorial items; convergent validation was assessed by using two questionnaires on self-esteem and emotional and behavioral problems; and the Anova analysis was performed to assess gender and age differences in self-concept. Results showed that, keeping a 6 factors structure, a single-factor items model had highest fit indexes than the multifactorial of the original version; convergent analysis confirmed good levels of reliability and validity of the questionnaire in the Italian context. Differences between male and females and children and pre-adolescents are discussed. The Piers-Harris children's self-concept scale 2 has proven to be a consistent and simple method to evaluate self-concept in children, suitable both in research and clinical assessments.