Preliminary Validation of the Teacher-Rated DESSA in a Low-Income, Kindergarten Sample

Abstract

This study investigated the measurement of social emotional competence in low-income youth by assessing the validity of responses derived from the widely used, teacher-rated Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA). Based on the five-component social emotional learning model proposed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, the teacher-rated DESSA shows promise as an easy-to-administer, strengths-based assessment tool for teachers from low-income communities. In a sample of 313 kindergarten students from a southeastern city, three competing measurement models were tested (one-factor, correlated five-factor, and higher order five-factor) using confirmatory factor analyses. Results revealed that, relative to the one-factor model, the higher order five-factor framework had the best model-data fit, although the first-order factors were highly correlated with the second-order factor. Furthermore, zero-order correlations showed that the DESSA was associated with both direct and teacher-reported measures of school-related outcomes. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.

Examining the structural validity of the SSIS SEL brief scales—Teacher and student forms

“…The proposed tests included: Beyond such tests, future research should also seek to address a problem that has become increasingly apparent in the literature and was manifest in this study-the very strong relationship between CASEL competency domains. Our results show this pattern, as do results from the DESSA (Doromal et al, 2019), the SSIS SEL (Gresham et al, 2020;Panayiotou et al, 2019), and survey-based research (e.g., Ross & Tolan, 2018)…”

“…Unfortunately, however, the CASEL framework does not yet appear to have been specified at the level of detail needed for robust scientific evaluation. This has led to different types of models (higher‐order and correlated factors) being implemented when researchers attempt to test the CASEL framework (e.g., Doromal et al, 2019; Gresham et al, 2020).…”

“…Yet, it is also possible the correlations between latent SEL factors could themselves be explained by a higher-order factor (a general SEL factor). Such a possibility would imply a higher-order factor model such as those tested by Doromal et al (2019) and Ross and Tolan (2018). Furthermore, the past decade has seen increasing interest in an alternate model for parsing variance between specific and general factors (Markon, 2019).…”

“…Because the CASEL framework conceptualizes the five SEL domains as interconnected, it is reasonable to expect that they should be correlated—perhaps highly so—and empirical evidence bears out this expectation (e.g., Doromal et al, 2019; Gresham et al, 2020). A simple factor model in which latent factors are allowed to correlate, therefore seems in line with the CASEL framework.…”

Initial Development and Validation of the Social Skills Improvement System—Social and Emotional Learning Brief Scales-Teacher Form

“…Specifically, the CASEL model has influenced SEL policies in all 50 US states and internationally (Dusenbury, Yoder, Dermody, & Weissberg, 2019;Eklund, Kilpatrick, Kilgus, & Haider, 2018). Recent studies have also corroborated the CASEL framework as a broad model of important SEL skills (Anthony, Elliott, DiPerna, & Lei, 2020a, 2020bDoromal, Cottone, & Kim, 2019), further supporting the utility of this framework. Despite these developments, there remain important barriers to effective practice in contemporary school-based service delivery paradigms, such as MTSS.…”