Janet Ellis, Ari Zaretsky
Assessment and Management of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Continuum (Minneapolis, Minn.)
present study examined socialemotional development items assessed kindergarten teachers early childhood longitudinal studybirth cohort determine optimal factor structure underlying items well reliability validity resulting factors study identified empirically derived factor structure teacherreported social development investigated whether evidence bias teacher assessments socialemotional constructs examined factor invariance across demographic characteristics ie race ethnicity sex poverty status examined external validity derived factors determining extent associated wellestablished measures early childhood competencies findings suggested 4factor solution optimal consisting interpersonal skills b externalizing behavior c approaches learning perspective taking findings offer suggestive evidence teacher biases assessments although conclusive support invariance socialemotional dimension across demographic characteristics results provide useful next step toward documenting reliable valid socialemotional measures use early childhood research challenges users national datasets think critically use scales without priori attention important psychometric properties