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.

This study aimed to develop a dimensional instrument to assess personality disorders based on Millon's theoretical perspective and on DSM-IV-TR diagnoses criteria, and seek validity evidence based on internal structure and reliability indexes of the factors. In order to do that, a self-report test composed of 215 items, the Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory (DCPI) was developed and applied to 561 respondents aged between 18 and 90 years (M = 28,8; SD = 11.4), with 51.8% females. Exploratory factor analysis and verifi cation of reliability were performed using Cronbach's alpha. Data provided validity evidence based on internal structure of the instrument according to the theory of Millon and DSM-IV-TR.

Este artigo apresenta um panorama de questões importantes da área de avaliação psicológica nos últimos 25 anos no Brasil. Buscou-se discutir fundamentos epistemológicos da área, bem como suas relações com a ciência e a integração do pensamento nomotético e idiográfico da pesquisa com a prática profissional. Faz-se um apanhado histórico de eventos importantes e uma análise geral da produção de artigos. Descreve-se também a produção de instrumentos e o Sistema de Avaliação de Testes Psicológicos do Conselho Federal de Psicologia. Posteriormente, são apontadas perspectivas para o futuro em quatro áreas: avanços metodológicos e tecnológicos, integração de abordagens e avanço dos seus métodos, validade consequencial e relevância social, e incentivo à formação e à criação da especialidade em avaliação psicológica.

No abstract

Abstract. Whereas the structure of individual differences in personal attributes is well understood in adults, much less work has been done in children and adolescents. On the assessment side, numerous instruments are in use for children but they measure discordant attributes, ranging from one single factor (self-esteem; grit) to three factors (social, emotional, and academic self-efficacy) to five factors (strength and difficulties; Big Five traits). To construct a comprehensive measure for large-scale studies in Brazilian schools, we selected the eight most promising instruments and studied their structure at the item level (Study 1; N = 3,023). The resulting six-factor structure captures the major domains of child differences represented in these instruments and resembles the well-known Big Five personality dimensions plus a negative self-evaluation factor. In a large representative sample in Rio de Janeiro State (Study 2; N = 24,605), we tested a self-report inventory (SENNA1.0) assessing these six dimensions of socio-emotional skills with less than 100 items and found a robust and replicable structure and measurement invariance across grades, demonstrating feasibility for large-scale assessments across diverse student groups in Brazil. Discussion focuses on the contribution to socio-emotional research in education and its measurement as well as on limitations and suggestions for future research.