Reliability and validity of a Spanish language assessment of children's social-emotional learning skills.

Few Spanish language tools are available for assessing important social-emotional learning (SEL) skills. The present study presents evidence of the psychometric properties of a Spanish-language version of SELweb (SELweb-S), a web-based system for assessing children's ability to recognize others' emotions and perspectives, solve social problems, and engage in self-control. With a sample of 524 students in Grades K to 3, we examined the reliability and validity of SELweb-S. This study provided evidence that (a) individual assessment modules exhibited moderate to high internal consistency and moderate 6-month temporal stability, (b) composite assessment scores exhibited high reliability, (c) assessment module scores fit a theoretically coherent factor structure, and (d) performance on SELweb-S assessment modules was positively related to teacher-reported SEL skills. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of direct assessments of SEL skills in languages other than English. In addition, we highlight the importance of abiding by rigorous recommendations in the literature for the translation and cultural adaptation of assessments. (PsycINFO Database Record

Social-Emotional Correlates of Early Stage Social Information Processing Skills in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Difficulty processing social information is a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet the failure of children with ASD to process social information effectively is poorly understood. Using Crick and Dodge's model of social information processing (SIP), this study examined the relationship between social-emotional (SE) skills of pragmatic language, theory of mind, and emotion recognition on the one hand, and early stage SIP skills of problem identification and goal generation on the other. The study included a sample of school-aged children with and without ASD. SIP was assessed using hypothetical social situations in the context of a semistructured scenario-based interview. Pragmatic language, theory of mind, and emotion recognition were measured using direct assessments. Social thinking differences between children with and without ASD are largely differences of quantity (overall lower performance in ASD), not discrepancies in cognitive processing patterns. These data support theoretical models of the relationship between SE skills and SIP. Findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms giving rise to SIP deficits in ASD and may ultimately inform treatment development for children with ASD.

Direct assessment of children's social-emotional comprehension.

Social-emotional comprehension includes the ability to encode, interpret, and reason about social-emotional information. The better developed children's social-emotional comprehension, the more positive their social interactions and the better their peer relationships. Many clinical tools exist to assess children's social behavior. In contrast, fewer clinically interpretable tools are available to assess children's social-emotional comprehension. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of a group of direct assessments of social-emotional comprehension. Scores on these assessments reflected children's performance on challenging tasks that required them to demonstrate their social-emotional comprehension. In 2 independent samples, including a general education school sample (n = 174) and a clinic sample (n = 119), this study provided evidence that (a) individual assessments yield variably reliable scores, (b) composite scores are highly reliable, (c) direct assessments demonstrate a theoretically coherent factor structure and convergent and discriminant validity, and (d) composite scores yield expected age- and diagnostic-group differences. Implications for clinical practice, theory, and assessment development are discussed.