Relationships Among Early Childhood Behavior Rating Scales: Convergent and Discriminant Construct Validity of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales

Research Findings: Data that serve to establish the convergent and discriminant construct validity of a new behavior rating scale for use with the early childhood preschool population-the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales (PKBS)-are presented. The results of four different studies are presented wherein PKBS ratings of preschool or kindergarten age children were correlated with established comparison measures: the Social Skills Rating System, Mattson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters, Conners Teacher Rating Scale, and School Social Behavior Scales. Correlations were in the desired directed for demonstrating convergent and discriminant construct validity of the PKBS. Practice Implications: The PKBS appears to adequately measure the constructs of social skills and both internalizing and externalizing problem behavior in early childhood. Although additional validation research for this instrument is needed, the PKBS appears to show promise as a research tool, screening device, and assessment instrument for assessing social-emotional behavior of children ages 3–6. Given the increasing importance of early detection of social-emotional problems as part of a comprehensive system of prevention and early intervention, future efforts at linking assessment tools to specific and effective intervention techniques appear to be a much needed and significant endeavor.     

Relationships Among Early Childhood Behavior Rating Scales: Convergent and Discriminant Construct Validity of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales

Research Findings: Data that serve to establish the convergent and discriminant construct validity of a new behavior rating scale for use with the early childhood preschool population-the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales (PKBS)-are presented. The results of four different studies are presented wherein PKBS ratings of preschool or kindergarten age children were correlated with established comparison measures: the Social Skills Rating System, Mattson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters, Conners Teacher Rating Scale, and School Social Behavior Scales. Correlations were in the desired directed for demonstrating convergent and discriminant construct validity of the PKBS. Practice Implications: The PKBS appears to adequately measure the constructs of social skills and both internalizing and externalizing problem behavior in early childhood. Although additional validation research for this instrument is needed, the PKBS appears to show promise as a research tool, screening device, and assessment instrument for assessing social-emotional behavior of children ages 3-6. Given the increasing importance of early detection of social-emotional problems as part of a comprehensive system of prevention and early intervention, future efforts at linking assessment tools to specific and effective intervention techniques appear to be a much needed and significant endeavor.     

The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance: Does It Work with Low-Income Urban Children?

The present study represents a twofold investigation wherein ( a ) the construct validity of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (PSPCSA) and ( b ) the developmental appropriateness of the PSPCSA were empirically examined for urban Head Start children. Data were collected from a sample of 476 African-American children (48–64 months) representing children enrolled in a large metropolitan Head Start program. In the first study, neither replication of the test author's statistical procedures nor a series of exploratory factor analyses produced psychologically meaningful constructs. A second study tested the assumption that the PSPCSA administration format is developmentally appropriate for preschool children. Results from this study did not support the assumption that the PSPCSA is developmentally appropriate for preschool children. Implications for establishing valid assessment methods for urban Head Start children were discussed.     

Convergent validity of the BASC and SSRS: Implications for social skills assessment

The present study examined the psychometric relationship between two new rating scales, the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992) and the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliott, 1990), for a sample (N = 53) of minority kindergarten children using both parent and teacher ratings. The similarities and differences between these instruments were investigated through correlational and content analyses. In general, the results provide preliminary convergent validity evidence for the BASC and SSRS. In regard to the Social Skills subscale of the BASC, convergent validity evidence was demonstrated for the parent form of this instrument, but not the teacher form, when the SSRS Social Skills scale was used as the criterion. In addition, the correlations between the various scales of the BASC and SSRS were in the expected direction. That is, the correlation between the BASC Adaptive Skills Composite and the SSRS Social Skills scale was moderate in the teacher group (r = .44) and high in the parent group (r = .54). Similarly, correlations between the BASC Hyperactivity, Aggression, and Externalizing scales and the SSRS Problem Behaviors scale ranged from .50 to .60 and .50 to .56 in the teacher and parent groups, respectively. Implications regarding the practical utility of the BASC and SSRS for assessing social skills functioning, in particular, were presented. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

RELIABILITY AND STRUCTURAL VALIDITY OF THE TEACHER RATING SCALES OF EARLY ACADEMIC COMPETENCE

Currently, there are few strengths‐based preschool rating scales that sample a wide array of behaviors believed to be essential for early academic success. The purpose of this study was to assess the factor structure of a new measure of early academic competence for at‐risk preschool populations. The Teacher Rating Scales of Early Academic Competence (TRS‐EAC) includes two broad scales (Early Academic Skills and Early Academic Enablers) and was completed by 60 teachers for 440 children enrolled in Head Start and public preschool classrooms. Evidence from two exploratory factor analyses supported a five‐factor solution for the Early Academic Skills Scale (Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking Skills, Numeracy, Early Literacy, and Comprehension) and a five‐factor solution for the Early Academic Enablers Scale (Approaches to Learning, Social and Emotional Competence, Fine Motor Skills, Gross Motor Skills, and Communication). TRS‐EAC scores also demonstrated good to excellent reliability and were related to children's performance on direct measures of early academic skills.     

The developmental influence of sex composition in preschool classrooms: Boys fare worse in preschool classrooms with more boys

A multilevel modeling approach was employed to investigate the relation between sex composition and developmental change in 70 urban preschool classrooms. The research represents a unique contribution as (1) few studies have examined the influence of sex composition during the preschool years, (2) it represents the first research to use a continuous (i.e., sex ratio) as opposed to binary (i.e., mixed- versus single-sex) indicator for classroom sex composition, and (3) the sample represents an important and often neglected group (i.e., low-income children from urban schools). A series of HLM models were run, addressing the nested nature of the data (children within classrooms), and relating classroom sex composition to developmental change using the cognitive, motor, and social subscales from the Child Observation Record (COR). Overall, there were no main effects at the classroom-level for sex composition. However, a cross-level interaction indicated that, while girls’ development was not influenced by classroom sex composition, boys in classrooms with proportionally more boys fared significantly worse in terms of development as assessed by combined score on the COR. More specifically, this interaction was significant when predicting the COR cognitive subscale, but nonsignificant when predicting the COR social and motor subscales. This was true when controlling for the number of students at the classroom-level, as well as child's age and baseline ability (i.e., Time 1 COR) at the child-level. Implications for early childhood education policy are discussed.     

Problems in Classroom Engagement: Validation of an Assessment for District-Wide Use in the Early Primary Grades

Research Findings: The aim of this study was to provide an initial investigation into the psychometric properties of the Problems in Classroom Engagement Scale (PCES). The PCES was designed and tested for district-wide use as part of the report card system for a large urban school district. The PCES was administered to all 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-grade students in the district. Factor analytic examination revealed a bifactor structure as the best fit to the data. The bifactor structure reflected a general factor of Problems in Behavioral Engagement and two group factors: Problems in Social Engagement and Problems in Academic Engagement. These factors were found to be reliable within and across grades and demonstrated convergent and divergent relations with academic and behavioral outcomes. Practice or Policy: Findings provide initial evidence to support the routine use of the PCES in a large urban setting. The use of the PCES can help in fostering district-wide attention to students’ early difficulties with behavioral, social, and academic engagement.     

Multidimensional assessment of emotional and behavioral adjustment problems of low-income preschool children: development and initial validation

The Adjustment Scales for Preschool Intervention (ASPI) was developed and tested for use in preschool programs serving low-income children. The ASPI is a measure of emotional and behavioral adjustment problems observed within routine classroom situations. Principal components analyses revealed five reliable behavioral dimensions: Aggressive, Withdrawn-Low Energy, Socially Reticent, Oppositional, and Inattentive/Hyperactive and two higher-order dimensions: Overactive and Underactive problem behaviors. Concurrent criterion validity of these dimensions was supported by multivariate indicators of peer social competence and classroom behavior problems. Age and gender analyses indicated that boys showed higher levels of overactive behavior than girls and that younger preschool children evidenced more underactive and inattentive behavior than older preschool children. Situational analyses indicated that situations requiring more initiation and self-regulation were associated with more problematic behaviors.     

Social and behavioral differences among a predominantly African American preschool sample

This study investigated the relationship between problem behaviors, including those associated with hyperactivity, and social skill deficits in a predominantly African American sample of preschool children. Specifically, 96 children, ages 3 through 5, were evaluated by their teachers using the Conners' Teacher Rating Scales‐28 (CTRS‐28), the ADHD Rating Scale, and the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). Three cluster groups were identified based upon ratings on the CTRS‐28. Differences in specific SSRS Social Skill and Problem Behavior items among the three groups were identified. In addition, differential and concurrent validity for the AD/HD Rating Scale for the preschool age group was established. Implications of results regarding children at risk for school failure and drop‐out were discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The validity of the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for culturally and linguistically diverse Head Start children

The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) is a social-emotional assessment widely used by early childhood educational programs to inform early identification and intervention efforts. However, its construct validity is not well-established in independent samples of children from low-income backgrounds. We examined the construct validity of the teacher report of the DECA using a series of confirmatory factor analyses, exploratory factor analyses, and the Rasch partial credit model in a large sample of culturally and linguistically diverse Head Start children (N = 5,197). Findings provided some evidence for consistency in the factor structure of the three Protective Factors subscales (Initiative, Self-Control, and Attachment); however, the factor structure of the Behavioral Concerns subscale was not replicated in our sample and demonstrated poor fit to these data. Findings suggested that the 10 items of the published Behavioral Concerns subscale did not comprise a unidimensional construct, but rather, were better represented by two factors (externalizing and internalizing behavior). The use of the total Behavioral Concerns score as a screening tool to identify emotional and behavioral problems in diverse samples of preschool children from low-income backgrounds was not supported, especially for internalizing behavior. Implications for the consequential validity of the DECA for use as a screening tool in early childhood programs serving diverse populations of children and directions for future research are discussed.     

Validation of Preschool Teachers’ Recall of Children’s Behavior

A multiple-choice behavioral observation scale designed to be used by preschool teachers (N = 424) was factor analyzed to obtain factor coefficients. The four factors obtained were cognitive skills, self-control, relationship with achievement model, and dependency. The factor coefficients were then applied to the ratings of 153 preschool disadvantaged children by 33 teachers and 64 teacher aides. Three multi-trait, multi-rater matrices were analyzed using Campbell and Fiske’s convergent discriminant validation procedures. The analyses supported convergent and discriminant validity of three of the four traits.     

Validity of the K-ABC for a black preschool population

The validity of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) was investigated with a sample of Black low SES preschool children. The sample consisted of 38 Black children who were enrolled in a Head Start program. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (SB-LM) was used as a criterion against which to compare K-ABC scores. While some support was obtained for the convergent and construct validity of the K-ABC, the results of this study suggest it may be no more culture fair for Black preschool children than is the SB-LM.     

Promoting social interaction of children with disabilities in integrated preschools: a failure to generalize.

In this study, the Classwide Social Skills Program (CSSP) was introduced for all children in four integrated preschool classes, and generalization of effects was measured across settings and over time for 14 children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 5 years. Results indicated that the CSSP increased the positive play of children with disabilities to levels comparable to classmates without disabilities. Levels of teacher reinforcement toward the children with disabilities increased as well. These increases in teacher and child behaviors, however, did not generalize to 3- or 6-month follow-up periods nor to another play session in the day. Implications for promoting social interaction in integrated preschool settings are discussed.     

Validity of the home and community social behavior scales: Comparisons with five behavior‐rating scales

Three separate studies focusing on convergent and discriminant validity evidence for the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales are presented. The HCSBS is a 65‐item social behavior‐rating scale for use by parents and caretakers of children and youth ages 5–18. It is a parent‐rating version of the School Social Behavior Scales. Within these studies, relationships with five behavior‐rating scales were examined: the Social Skills Rating System, Conners Parent Rating Scale–Revised‐Short Form, Child Behavior Checklist, and the child and adolescent versions of the Behavior Assessment System for Children. HCSBS Scale A, Social Competence, evidenced strong positive correlations with measures of social skills and adaptability, strong negative correlations with measures of externalizing behavior problems, and modest negative correlations with measures of internalizing and atypical behavior problems. HCSBS Scale B, Antisocial Behavior, evidenced strong positive correlations with measures of externalizing behavior problems, modest positive correlations with measures of internalizing and atypical behavior problems, and strong negative correlations with measures of social skills and adaptability. These results support the HCSBS as a measure of social competence and antisocial behavior of children and youth. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Parental assessment of peer play: Development and validation of the parent version of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the construct validity of the parent version of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS) and to compare it with the teacher version. PIPPS were collected on 297 urban Head Start children. The Parent PIPPS replicated the three-factor solution found with the teacher version, supporting the following constructs of peer play: Play Interaction, Play Disruption, and Play Disconnection. Factor matching and canonical correlational analyses examining the relationship between the parent and teacher versions of the PIPPS revealed significant one-to-one matches between hypothesized like factors. Additionally, analyses of overlapping variance between versions indicated a significant degree of overlap. Implications of the findings for involvement of parents in the assessment process and research on the continuity and discontinuity between home and school environments for low-income, urban children were discussed.     

Differentiating the Sources of Taiwanese High School Students’ Multidimensional Science Learning Self-Efficacy: An Examination of Gender Differences

The main purpose of this study was to investigate Taiwanese high school students’ multi-dimensional self-efficacy and its sources in the domain of science. Two instruments, Sources of Science Learning Self-Efficacy (SSLSE) and Science Learning Self-Efficacy (SLSE), were used. By means of correlation and regression analyses, the relationships between students’ science learning self-efficacy and the sources of their science learning self-efficacy were examined. The findings revealed that the four sources of the students’ self-efficacy were found to play significant roles in their science learning self-efficacy. By and large, Mastery Experience and Vicarious Experience were found to be the two salient influencing sources. Several gender differences were also revealed. For example, the female students regarded Social Persuasion as the most influential source in the “Science Communication” dimension, while the male students considered Vicarious Experience as the main efficacy source. Physiological and Affective States, in particular, was a crucial antecedent of the female students’ various SLSE dimensions, including “Conceptual Understanding,” “Higher-Order Cognitive Skills,” and “Science Communication.” In addition, the variations between male and female students’ responses to both instruments were also unraveled. The results suggest that, first, the male students perceived themselves as having more mastery experience, vicarious experience and social persuasion than their female counterparts. Meanwhile, the female students experienced more negative emotional arousal than the male students. Additionally, the male students were more self-efficacious than the females in the five SLSE dimensions of “Conceptual Understanding,” “Higher-Order Cognitive Skills,” “Practical Work,” “Everyday Application,” and “Science Communication.”     

Reliability and Validity of Play‐based Observations: relationship between the PLAY behaviour observation system and standardised measures of cognitive and social skills

Little, if any, examination of the reliability and validity of play‐based assessment exists in the current literature. Thus, the present study specifically examined the relationship between scores obtained on a classroom‐based play observation system and standardised measures of cognitive and social competence with preschool children. High reliability between observers was established for the play‐based assessment measure. In addition, concurrent validity was assessed by comparing scores on the PLA Y assessment measure with scores the children obtained on the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI) and Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS‐T). Significant positive correlations in the predicted directions were obtained: Children rated as more cognitively and socially competent were found to engage in higher levels of play behaviours (e.g. associative‐constructive and co‐operative‐dramatic), while children identified as less cognitively and socially competent engaged in lower levels of play behaviours (e.g. solitary‐functional and onlooker). The study suggests that, when operationally defined play observation methods were used, observers were able to record accurately the level of play exhibited by each child, and these play behaviours did reflect the child's current cognitive and social developmental functioning.     

Parent Reading Belief Inventory: Reliability and Validity With a Sample of Mexican American Mothers

Research Findings: The purpose of the current study was to (a) evaluate the internal consistency of the 7 scales of the Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI), (b) assess the factor structure, and (c) examine concurrent validity in a sample of Mexican American mothers from low-income homes.

Two hundred and seventy-four mothers of preschool children completed the PRBI and the Home Literacy Activities Questionnaire.

Five of the seven scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency. Principal component and parallel analyses revealed that one component provided the best summary of the observed variables. Preliminary evidence of concurrent validity was revealed. Practice or Policy: Future qualitative research is needed to explore mothers' interpretations of the items and to examine modifications to the PRBI.