Self-Concept Measurement with Preadolescent Children: Validation of a German Version of the SDQ I

The Self-Description Questionnaire I (SDQ I; Marsh, 1990b) is known as the most validated instrument to measure the multidimensional self-concept of preadolescent children. A German version of the SDQ I is introduced in this study. Its psychometric properties were examined in a sample of N = 589 students of grades 3 to 6. The majority of the scales were proven as reliable and valid in order to measure content-specific facets of self-concept of preadolescents. Validity restrictions, however, emerged for the verbal part of academic self-concept assessed by reading self-concept. Reading self-concept showed similar correlations to students' grades in German (r = .32) as general school self-concept (r = .38). Additionally, next to the separation of academic self-concept into a verbal and a math factor, academic self-concept was proven to be further differentiable into competence and affect components. Thus, the results of the German version of the SDQ I reported here make several important suggestions about the structure of self-concept with preadolescent children.