Cross-cultural validation of harter's self-perception profile for children in the United Arab Emirates

Background: Harter's Self-Perception Profile for children (SPPC) is a self-reporting inventory for ascertaining children's perception of themselves in various specific domains of their life, as well as their sense of global self-worth. A few studies have examined the psychometric properties of this instrument in the Western setting, but none have investigated this in an Arabic culture. Patients and Method: Psychometric properties of the SPPC were examined, using a sample of 100 schoolchildren aged 8 to 16 years in the United Arab Emirates. Results: The internal consistency reliability was found to be excellent with Chronbach's alpha, ranging from 0.86 to 0.92. Significant age and gender differences were found with the internal consistency reliability scores, being higher in children aged 13 to 16 years (0.88 to 0.93) when compared to younger children, especially boys aged 8 to 12 years (0.54 to 0.66), suggesting a need to exercise caution while using this scale in young boys in this culture. Behavioral conduct subscale was found to have the highest reliability score and the strongest correlation to global self-worth (r=0.54) for both younger and older children in our sample. This is in contrast to findings from similar studies carried out on American and Dutch samples, where this subscale was found to have the lowest reliability score and the weakest correlation with one's global self-worth. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the SPPC is a reliable and internally valid instrument for use in the Arab culture.