Single-Item Measures for Subjective Academic Performance, Self-Esteem, and Socioeconomic Status

Single-item (SI) measures, which are easy and simple in administration, were found to be useful in areas such as health and business, but they were not popular in measuring important constructs in education. This article investigates the descriptive statistics, psychometric properties, and construct validities of SI measures in educational settings of subjective academic performance, self-esteem (“single-item self-esteem”), and subjective socioeconomic status using empirical data. The samples consist of five studies of students from China and Macau, with sample sizes ranging from 724 to 7,147. Results indicate good content validity and statistically significant construct validity. The pros and cons of SI measures are discussed where the gain outweighs the cost. Future studies are suggested to examine the test–retest reliability of SI measures and to compare the effectiveness of SI and multi-item measures.