Developing the “Social Skills Assessment Scale-Teacher Form” for Preschool Children: A Study of Validity and Reliability

This study aimed to develop “Social Skills Assessment Scale-Teacher Form” (SOSAS-TF) for preschool children. The study data were collected from three distinct groups of participants. The first study data on a preliminary trial was obtained from 254 children, the second data on trial practice was obtained from 896 children, while the third data on test-retest reliability was obtained from 263 children. Within this scope, a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was determined as .96, and the Bartlett test chi-square value was to be found significant. The findings of the study revealed that the scale having 44 items consisted of the following dimensions: “communication,” “adaptation,’’ “self-control,’’ “prosocial behaviors,’’ and “assertiveness.’’ All items in the scale had factor load values between .46 and .74. Additionally, each item in relationship with other items had common factor variances between .42 and .69. Five factors in the scale explained 54.57% of total variance. This scale’s Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient values for “communication,” “adaptation,” “self-control,” and “prosocial behaviors” dimensions were .89, .90, .86, .87, respectively. The total was strongly reliable (α= .94), and the “assertiveness” (α= .76) dimension was to be found significantly reliable. In terms of the scale's test-retest reliability, “communication” (r= .82), “adaptation” (r= .86), “self-control” (r= .75), “prosocial behaviors” (r= .86), and “assertiveness” dimensions (r= .63), and total (r= .89) reached a positive and highly significant correlation (p< .001). Therefore, a valid and reliable measuring instrument was developed and contributed to the literature.