Social-Emotional and Character Development Scale: Development and Initial Validation with Urban Elementary School Students

The Social-Emotional and Character Development Scale (SECDS) is intended as a measure of social-emotional skills and character for elementary school-age children. This study investigated the measure's psychometric properties using data collected over 5 waves for a cohort of students followed fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Research in Character Education 2013-07, Vol.9 (2), p.121
Main Authors: Ji, Peter, DuBois, David L, Flay, Brian R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altruism
Anxiety
Behavior
Children & youth
Correlation
Decision making
Depression (Psychology)
Education
Elementary School Students
Emotional Development
Ethics
Factor Analysis
Factor Structure
Grades (Scholastic)
Health Behavior
Learning
Life Satisfaction
Longitudinal Studies
Measures (Individuals)
Moral Values
Outcomes of Education
Peer Groups
Personality
Psychological aspects
Risk
Self awareness
Self Concept Measures
Self control
Self Esteem
Social Development
Social Emotional Learning
Statistical Analysis
Student Attitudes
Studies
Study and teaching
Trend Analysis
Urban Areas
Validity
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Summary:The Social-Emotional and Character Development Scale (SECDS) is intended as a measure of social-emotional skills and character for elementary school-age children. This study investigated the measure's psychometric properties using data collected over 5 waves for a cohort of students followed from Grades 3 to 5 in 14 urban elementary schools (N Range = 500 to 593). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated good fit to the measure's hypothesized first- and second-order factor structure at each wave. Scales corresponding to the first-order factor structure demonstrated adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Consistent with previous research using similar measures of social-emotional skills and character, a longitudinal analysis indicated that the means for these scales decreased over the 5 waves. The validity of the SECDS general and individual scales was supported via their patterns of association with measures of expected correlates of social-emotional skills and character. Overall, findings suggest the SECDS is appropriate for assessing the development of different facets of social-emotional skills and character during elementary grades and that it could be useful for investigating their role in the developmental pathways for a range of important youth outcomes.
ISSN:1543-1223