Validation of a community-based application of the Portuguese version of the survey on Social and Emotional Skills – Child/Youth Form

Abstract

Introduction: Children and adolescents’ social and emotional skills have been gaining attention in diverse settings. With over 100 conceptual frameworks available, there is now a common move toward framing these skills as social and emotional learning (SEL), assuming that they are not only amiable to development, but also malleable to change as a product of intervention. As such, there is a strong need for a comprehensive measure to effectively evaluate such skills, validated for different age groups in children and young people, and applicable to both educational contexts and community settings.

Methods: This paper presents the validation of the Portuguese adaptation of the Child/Youth form of the Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES), in the scope of the Gulbenkian Academies for Knowledge initiative with a sample of 7,831 participants between 8 and 17 years old (M = 11.79, SD = 2.94).

Results: Results show that the measure has good internal consistency and sensitivity, while also being sensitive to change over time. Preliminary factor analysis shows promise, although further research is necessary.

Discussion: Discussion reflects on the value of the Child/Youth form of the SSES as a comprehensive measure to be used by community and educational professionals to monitor skill development and improve their work on SEL.