Crafting Connections: Developing a Comprehensive Social Skills Scale for Children

Abstract

This study portrays the development and validation of the Social Skills Scale for Children (SSSC), which addresses a critical need in educational and psychological assessments. The initial scale comprised 41 items carefully vetted through expert reviews. It incorporated positive and negative statements to capture social skills such as establishing relationships, respecting others, and adhering to social norms. The scale underwent rigorous validation with a sample of 158 fifth-grade students from a primary school, employing a four-point Likert-type response format. Validity and reliability analyses revealed the scale's robust psychometric properties. The exploratory factor analysis led to the refinement of the scale by removing items with low cross-correlation coefficients, resulting in a more concise and focused measure of social skills. The confirmatory factor analysis further supported the scale's structure, indicating a good fit with the data. Notably, the scale showed high levels of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .889), suggesting it reliably assesses the intended construct. The final scale's 20 items, obtained after a series of empirical analyses, encompass a broad spectrum of social interactions and behaviors critical for children's social development. With its strong psychometric properties, the SSSC is a valuable resource for researchers, educators, and practitioners aiming to enhance children's social skills education and intervention programs.