Psychometric Fundamentals of the Social Skills Improvement System: Social–Emotional Learning Edition Rating Forms

Abstract

This study described the development of the Social Skills Improvement System Social Emotional Learning Edition Rating Forms (SSIS SEL RF) for teachers, parents, and students. This new multirater assessment is a reconfiguration of the SSIS Rating Scales items inspired by the CASEL Social Emotional Competency framework. The internal structure and score reliability estimates were examined across three raters for a common sample of more than 200 individual children ages 3 to 18 years. Confirmatory factor analyses tested against the CASEL five-dimensional SEL theoretical model demonstrated adequate fit for the SSIS SEL Parent and Student RFs and mediocre fit of the Teacher RF. Internal consistency, test-retest, and interrater reliability estimates for scores on each of the SSIS SEL RFs all met or exceeded acceptable criteria. Thus, researchers and practitioners interested in measuring the social–emotional behavior of children ages 3 to 18 can expect reliable scores and structurally meaningful behavior content within the Collaborative on Academic Social Emotional Learning (CASEL) SEL competency framework. Limitations to the present findings and suggestions for future research conclude the report.

Exploring the Dimensionality of the Social Skills Improvement System Using Exploratory Graph Analysis and Bifactor-(S − 1) Modeling

“…Overall, our findings and those reported elsewhere Gresham et al, 2020;Panayiotou et al, 2019) suggest that currently the SSIS is unable to meaningfully capture distinct domains of social skills (or social-emotional competence in the case of SSIS-SEL). This does not necessarily mean, however, that the poor discriminant validity of the measure is the result of a common general factor.…”

“…Results pointed to two issues. First, as with the original study (Gresham et al, 2020), this model was shown to have inconsistent fit, with respect to CFI and RMSEA, χ 2 (979) = 3355.421, p < .001; RMSEA = .028 (90% CI [.027, .029]), p > .05; CFI = .888, TLI = .881, SRMR = 053. Strictly following the minimum acceptable cutoffs, it appeared to fit the data well in terms of RMSEA, but poorly when CFI was considered.…”

“…In a recent effort to advance social and emotional learning (SEL) measurement using the original standardization data (N = 224), Gresham and Elliott (2018) reconfigured the 46-item SSIS into a five-factor structure representing the five competencies of CASEL's (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2008) SEL framework: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship, and responsible decision making. Despite the promising applications of such a measure, Gresham et al (2020) found inconsistent model fit (root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = .06, comparative fit index [CFI] = .83) and poor discriminant validity for the self-report version, with 8 out of 10-factor correlations exceeding .85. Similar findings were found by Panayiotou, Humphrey, and Wigelsworth (2019) in a sample of 7-to 10-year-old English students, with an inadmissible structure due to poor discriminant validity (factor correlations >1).…”

Cross‐informant agreement of children's social‐emotional skills: An investigation of ratings by teachers, parents, and students from a nationally representative sample

“…Behavior rating scales are among the most frequently used measures of social behavior in school and clinical settings (Achenbach & Rescorla, ; Gresham & Elliott, , ; Kamphaus & Reynolds, ). Behavior rating scales are considered indirect measures of behavior because they are not measuring behavior at a time and place of its actual occurrence.…”

“…The purpose of the present study is to systematically explore patterns of agreement among teachers, parents, and students across several SEL competence domains. This investigation used the revision of the SSIS SEL edition rating forms (Gresham & Elliott, ). The SSIS SEL edition rating forms represents a multirater (teacher, parent, and student) series of rating forms to assess the frequency of SEL skills (see details regarding these assessments in the Instrumentation section).…”