The Soft Skills Scale for Parents (SSS-P): A Validity and Reliability Study

Soft skills are an important concept that includes interpersonal skills, academic skills, and emotional control, which determine the approach to many of life’s events. It is shaped by experiences acquired during childhood. Therefore, as the people who influence a child the most, parents' soft skills can determine both their own and their children's attitudes toward life. The few existing scales that focus on adults' soft skills are generally limited to domains such as business, engineering, health, and higher education. Therefore, the psychometric properties of a scale designed to assess parents' soft skills were examined. In the Study I, four hundred and twenty-three parents living in Çanakkale, Türkiye, participated in the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The EFA revealed that the scale consisted of twenty-four items with factor loadings greater than .40, forming five factors: academic expectations, interpersonal relationships, academic skills, emotional control, and cooperation. In the Study 2, two hundred and twenty-six parents living in Çanakkale, Türkiye, participated in the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). As a result of the CFA the goodness of fit indices were calculated as χ2/df = 3.38, RMSEA = 0.08, GFI = 0.92, AGFI = 0.91, TLI = 0.90 and CFI = 0.86. In Study 3, sixty-one parents participated in the test-retest phase. A correlation coefficient of 0.706 was calculated between the test-retest data, demonstrating a statistically significant correlation between the two administrations. The SSS-P is the first scale to determine parental soft skills. Analyses conducted to examine the psychometric properties demonstrated that the scale is valid and reliable in measuring parents’ soft skills. This scale will provide parents with an opportunity to better understand and develop themselves in areas such as improving family communication, recognizing the stress and challenges involved in raising children, and adopting a supportive role in their children's education. Additionally, it will serve as a valuable tool for researchers seeking to assess parental soft skills in the context of strengthening social communication. The scale can be used by researchers, teachers, and parents interested in evaluating parents' soft skill levels.