Assessing Young Children’s Social Competence: The Greek Version of the Social Competence Scale for Preschoolers-Parent Version (Published)
Successful social functioning in the kindergarten is related to future academic success and is regarded as one of the basic goals of the curriculum. Assessment of social competence is therefore critical to identify children at risk for poor outcomes and to provide evidence for the effectiveness of relevant activities and programs. Parents are considered quite reliable informants regarding children’s social competence and measurements should include relevant behaviors that may develop regardless context and situation. The purpose of present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Social Competence Scale-Parent version (SCS-P), taking into account that relevant robust measures of social competence are lacking with reference to the Greek context. Mothers of 913 children attending public kindergartens, aged 4-6 years, participated in the study, from 33 prefectures of Greece. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two robust and reliable factors. Only two items did not load onto the expected factor showing the value-laden and culture specific nature of social competence.
Keywords: : Scale, Greece, Kindergarten, Parents, social competence