Preliminary study for the construction of the Escala de Autoconceito Infanto-Juvenil (EAC-IJ)

This research deals with the construction and factorial study of an instrument to be used for the assessment of self-concept for children and juveniles in social, scholastic, family and personal contexts. The answers of 555 students, aged between 8-16 years old, were analyzed. This population consisted of 281 (50.6%) males and 274 (49.4%) females, attending second to eighth grades of elementary school. Items were eliminated on the basis of the factorial saturation and the internal consistency, and 20 items were chosen, distributed in the four proposed factors explaining 41.09% of the variance. The Cronbachs coefficients of internal consistency varied from 0.59 to 0.62 for the factors and for the total score was 0.78. Thus, items characterizing the four contexts were identified. This data corroborates the multidimensional perspective of the self first defended by Mead and James. Keywords: factor analysis; children; adolescent.