The development and validation of a social emotional school readiness scale

[摘要] English: The first year at school is a major life transition. School readiness assessments do notalways assess social-emotional competence although it is considered to be a key aspect ofsuccessful school adjustment. This omission is compounded by the absence of an appropriatemeasure of social-emotional school readiness. Subsequently, this research aimed at theidentification of behaviours that underpin the major social-emotional school readinessconstructs, namely Self Awareness and Regulation, Social Relationships, Empathy andCoping Skills. A scale, in the form of a questionnaire (BUSSE-SR), was developed for suchassessment.A convenience sample of 338 Grade R children in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal, were evaluatedby their parents and Grade R teachers according to these scales. The same cohort wasassessed the following year by their Grade One teachers in terms of their adjustment toschool and academic performance in Life Skills, Literacy and Numeracy. The resultsindicated that the predictive validity of the scales was greater for Grade R teachers thanGrade R parents. Through factor analysis, 28 behaviours of the most valid items wereidentified for the final version of the scales. The correlation coefficient for social-emotionalcompetence and school adjustment, and social-emotional competence and academicperformance, indicated a significant relationship between Self Awareness, Self Regulation,Social Relationships, Coping Skills and school adjustment and performance in Grade One.

[发布机构] University of the Free State