A Study of Development of Social Emotional Learning Skills Scale

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the psychometric properties of an instrument developed to assess social and emotional learning (SEL) skills among 6th and 8th grade primary school students. The Social Emotional Learning Skills Scale (SELSS) was developed specifically for the evaluation of 6th and 8th grade students’ SEL skills. The participants in this study were 1343 students who attended 9 primary schools. The sample consisted of 681 females and 662 males. Explanatory factor analysis using varimax rotation ultimately resulted in a four factor structure. During confirmatory factor analysis, this four factor structure was tested and the resulting model demonstrated produced significant goodness of fit statistics. The instrument demonstrated adequate criterion validity in that the SELSS produced significant correlations with other scales. Item analysis, internal consistency and test-retest reliability coefficients were established and were found to be more than adequate for subscales and total scores.