SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL ASSESSMENT IN EARLY-CHILDHOOD - THE PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN BEHAVIOR SCALES

The Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales (PKBS) was developed to address the lack of psychometrically sound behavioral assessment inst ruments available for use with the early childhood/preschool populatio n and because of the desirability of assessing both social skills and problem Behavior with a single measure. The PKBS was standardized with a diverse sample of 2,855 child ratings. Factor analyses indicate the presence of: a stable factor structure for both scales, Reliability s tudies indicate the PKBS has adequate to strong stability. Exploration s of within-scale relationships yielded evidence of content validity a s well as 2 forms of construct validity. The PKBS appears io be a psyc hometrically sound and clinically relevant instrument Tor screening an d assessing social skills and social-emotional problems of young child ren.