AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL SKILLS AND INTERNALIZING PROBLEMS IN EARLY-CHILDHOOD - CONSTRUCT-VALIDITY OF THE PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN BEHAVIOR SCALES

Research findings on possible links between the constructs of social s kills and internalizing disorders during early childhood are presented . Developmental research data from a new child behavioral rating instr ument, the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales (PKBS), were uti lized to explore the social skills/internalizing problems link and to identify some important behavioral characteristics of young children w ho are at high risk for developing internalizing type social-emotional problems. Social skills scores on the PKBS were found to be associate d negatively with internalizing problem scores on three different crit erion measures. Using the criterion of 1.5 standard deviations or high er than the normative mean on the Internalizing Problems broad band sc ore on the PKBS, a base rate of approximately 6.8% of a large national normative sample of preschool-age children was identified as having m oderately high to significant internalizing problem ratings. This grou p of ''internalizers'' was found to have significantly poorer social s kills than non-internalizing children in the same normative group and could be classified with a relatively high degree of accuracy based on discriminant function analysis of the PKBS scores alone. implications of these findings, potential clinical uses of the PKBS, and possible directions for future research are discussed.