The development and promotion of social-emotional skills in childhood and adolescence contributes to subsequent well-being and positive life outcomes. However, the assessment of these skills is associated with conceptual and methodological challenges. This review discusses how social-emotional skill measurement in youth could be improved in terms of skills’ conceptualization and classification, and in terms of assessment techniques and methodologies. The first part of the review discusses various conceptualizations of social-emotional skills, demonstrates their overlap with related constructs such as emotional intelligence and the Big Five personality dimensions, and proposes an integrative set of social-emotional skill domains that has been developed recently. Next, methodological approaches that are innovative and may improve social-emotional assessments are presented, illustrated by concrete examples. We discuss how these innovations could advance social-emotional assessments, and demonstrate links to similar issues in related fields. We conclude the review by providing several concrete assessment recommendations that follow from this discussion.

Personality disorders (PDs) are inherently associated with deficits in relating to other people. Previous research has shown consistent negative associations between categorical PD symptoms and relationship satisfaction. The present studies extend on these findings by examining the role of maladaptive traits in a number of ways. Self- and partner-reported maladaptive traits of both partners are included. Moreover, the present studies add a couple-centered approach by investigating the effects of actual similarity, perceptual similarity, and perceptual accuracy of the maladaptive trait profile on relationship satisfaction. PDs are conceptualized using 2 dimensional maladaptive trait models, that is, the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire in Study 1 and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 in Study 2. A total of 167 heterosexual couples participated in Study 1 and 52 heterosexual couples in Study 2. The actor-partner interdependence model was used to examine the associations between traits and relationship satisfaction, whereas the coefficient of profile agreement was used for the couple-centered analyses. Overall, results showed that the presence of maladaptive traits within romantic relationships has a detrimental effect on relationship satisfaction. Self-ratings on maladaptive traits, how we perceive our partners, and how we are perceived by our partners on maladaptive traits make significant contributions to our relationship (dis)satisfaction. Among the maladaptive traits, negative affect and detachment were most consistently negatively associated with relationship satisfaction. The couple-centered perspective showed less explanatory value but nontrivial associations between perceptual similarity and relationship satisfaction were found in Study 2. (PsycINFO Database Record

Se estudian estereotipos y prejuicios hacia distintos grupos étnicos que presentan los habitantes de una zona de pobreza extrema en el Callao, Perú. Se desarrollo un diseño mixto de investigación con una fase cuantitativa donde se aplicaron encuestas (n = 115) y una cualitativa donde se realizaron 4 grupos focales (n = 30). Los resultados muestran representaciones estereotípicas que comprenden grupos de alto (blancos) y bajo estatus (andinos, amazónicos y afroperuanos). Los grupos evaluados son representados a través de contenidos estereotipos ambivalentes. Los blancos son percibidos como instrumentales, corruptos y poco patriotas, mientras que los de bajo estatus como poco instrumentales pero cálidos y simpáticos. Comparando estos resultados con los obtenidos por Espinosa, Calderón, Guimac & Burga (2007), se observa que las representaciones estereotípicas de los participantes de sectores pobres son estructuralmente similares a las de personas de sectores medios. Sin embargo, el prejuicio asignado a grupos de alto estatus resulta mayor en la muestra de pobreza extrema, ya que se atribuye a sus miembros practicas discriminatorias y excluyentes que afectan a los grupos de bajo estatus.

Given the necessity of adequate instruments to measure socio-emotional skills, this study aimed to obtain validity evidence of the Social and Emotional Nationwide Assessment inventory (SENNA 1.0). The instrument was administered to a sample of 634 students (59% females) with a mean age of 16.3 years (SD = 1.21), from eight secondary schools of the Federal District ] of Brazil. Exploratory factor analysis indicated a six factor structure that explained 42.7% of the common variance, while confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equational modeling analysis showed a moderate fit to the data. Reliability coefficients of the factor scores varied between .66 and .89. The coefficients of the convergent validity with the Reduced Scale of the Big Five Personality Factors (ER5FP) had a mean value of .59. In conclusion, the results indicate satisfactory evidence for the score validity of the SENNA 1.0 inventory.

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