Development And Reliability And Validity Test Of Social Competence Scale For Preschool Childre

Social competence refers to children’s ability to display socially acceptable behaviors and flexibly use cognitive,emotional and behavioral resources to achieve their goals in social interactions in specific situations.Social competence is considered to be a good protective factor for mental health,which plays an important role in the future development of successful interpersonal relationships and the prevention of behavioral problems in preschool children.Therefore,the social competence of preschool children has been paid more and more attention.However,existing research on the composition of social competence and assessment methods are still controversial and limited.Therefore,this study intends to compile a social competency table for 3-6 years old children,and further verify and test the scale.The compilation of preschool children’s social competency table includes two parts.First of all,through the review and summary of the relevant literature and assessment tools in the field of children’s social competency,based on the social competency component model,prism model,social information processing model and other theories,combined with the differences of different ages,the three age groups of preschool children were compiled(57questions for 3 to 4 years old,60 questions for 4 to 5 years old and 60 questions for 5 to 6years old.The question expressions vary according to age),all three versions contain the same eight factors(communication,prosocial tendencies,problem solving,emotional understanding/expression/control,initiative,peer relationships,secure attachment,and social rules).On this basis,study 1 conducted a pre-test among 742 preschool children aged 3-6years,and used item analysis,parallel analysis,reliability analysis,exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factors to revise the initial scale.The results are as follows: questions 29,34 and 31 were respectively removed from the three versions of the initial measurement scale,and the four-factor model was finally retained.The fitting index of the social competency table of preschool children in the four-factor model met the standard(for the version of 3～4years old /4～5 years old /5～6 years old: CFI =.972,TLI =.970,SRMR =.055,RMSEA=.064;CFI =.965,TLI =.962,SRMR =.057,RMSEA =.068;CFI =.971,TLI =.969,SRMR =.061,RMSEA =.067).Secondly,on the basis of study 1,1957 preschool children aged 3-6 years old were selected as subjects in study 2 to test the reliability and validity of the three formal versions of the scale.The main results are as follows: The fitting index of the four-factor CFA measurement model of the three official versions of the scale is better(for the version of 3～4years old / 4～5 years old / 5～6 years old: CFI =.943,TLI =.938,SRMR =.055,RMSEA=.065;CFI =.966,TLI =.963,SRMR =.046,RMSEA =.062;CFI =.956,TLI =.951,SRMR =.056,RMSEA =.068).In general,the scale has good structural validity.In terms of aggregate validity,the three versions of the scale were moderately correlated with social competence,with correlation coefficients ranging from.580 to-.665.In terms of criterion correlation validity,the correlation coefficients of the three versions of the scale and the three dimensions corresponding to the parenting style and the dimension questionnaire were between-.193(indulgence)～.587(authority),-.231(autocracy)～.580(authority)and-.241(autocracy)～.641(authority),respectively.The correlation coefficients of the three dimensions corresponding to the trait questionnaire were between-.411(callous,unemotional)～-.249(grandiose,deceitful),-.369(callous,unemotional)～-.223(grandiose,deceitful),and-.396(callous,unemotional)～-.270(grandiose,deceitful).The correlation coefficients with anxiety were-.223,-.244 and-.247,respectively,reaching the significance level of.01,indicating that the scale had good criterion correlation validity.In terms of reliability,the overall internal consistency reliability of the three versions of the scale is.941,.952 and.934,respectively,among which the internal consistency reliability of the three to four-year-old version of the scale is between.792(prosocial inclination)and.900(social participation).The internal consistency reliability of each dimension of the 4～5-year-old version of the scale ranges from.806(communication)to.912(peer relationship).The internal consistency reliability of each dimension of the 5～6-year-old version of the scale ranges from.813(communication)to.887(coping style).To sum up,the table of social competence of preschool children compiled in this study includes three versions,corresponding to three age groups respectively.The three versions of the scale are composed of 30,29 and 28 questions respectively,all of which contain four dimensions.At the same time,the scale and all dimensions have good reliability and validity,reaching the psychometrical standard,which can be used for the related research of preschool children’s social competence.