Summary.The short form of the Coopersmith Self Esteem Inventory designed by Lee (Argyle and Lee, 1972) was subjected to several tests of validity and internal consistency. The short form was administered to 41 children in off‐site units for persistent school non‐attenders and 41 matched controls (average age 14 years 9 months). Factor analysis revealed no general factor of self esteem. Scores were found not to correlate significantly with general verbal abilities nor word reading. However, there was a moderate correlation between the Coopersmith scores and repetory grid measures of self esteem. Children who were rated by their teachers to have “neurotic” compared with conduct or no difficulties showed significantly lower scores on the Coopersmith inventory, suggesting that the short‐form inventory was assessing some aspects of self perceptions and self evaluations about emotional reactions. The results are interpreted as illustrating the need for improved test construction and validation in