Measuring Social-Emotional Behaviors in Preschool: Examining the Feasibility and Validity of a Social-Emotional Behavior Observation Tool

• In Event: The Promise and Practice of Social-Emotional Learning in Schools

Abstract

Social-emotional skills in preschool are foundational to children’s success in school (Domitrovich et al., 2017). Research on children’s social-emotional skills often relies on two types of measures: teacher-report or direct assessments. However, neither of these types of measures alone can fully capture how children socialize and behave in classroom settings with peers (Denham et al., 2008). Developing a comprehensive yet quick observational tool that can be used in diverse preschool settings will allow independent assessment of social-emotional behaviors in classroom settings and possibly provide additional information about children’s skills over and above teacher-reports or direct assessments (Denham et al., 2012). The purpose of this study is to examine the validity of an observation tool capturing children’s social-emotional behaviors during regular classroom activities. We first examined which social-emotional behaviors we can reliably observe in classroom settings. We then examined whether observed social-emotional behaviors are related to children's age, gender, race/ethnicity, and language status. Finally, we looked at how global ratings of behavior by independent assessors are associated with the social-emotional behaviors captured in classrooms.

A sample of 533 preschool children (Mage= 4 (.54), 45% female, 47% Asian American/Pacific Islander, 26% Latinx, 13% Black, 10% White, 4% Multiracial/Other) from the San Francisco Unified School District were observed in classrooms 4 times across 5-minute blocks. Seven observers were trained and made reliable (ICC > .90) on the Minnesota Preschool Affect Checklist (MPAC; Denham et al., 2012) as well as items added by the coding team. At the beginning of the school year, global ratings of social-emotional behaviors were recorded by independent assessors using the Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA; Smith-Donald et al., 2007). Starting in the middle of the school year, the observers went into classrooms to observe children when they were able to choose their own activities (e.g., free play). Ongoing double-coding with the master coder occurred to ensure reliability. Positive Affect and Negative Affect were captured with item scores averaged across time blocks. Productive Involvement and Prosocial Behaviors were created using averages across multiple items and four time blocks. Due to low occurrence, Unregulated Behaviors were captured using a dichotomous variable, indicating the occurrence of any unregulated behaviors (e.g., aggression) across any time block.

Table 1 shows the original composites from the observation tool, percent agreement between observers and the master-coder, details of added items, and the final five composites. Table 2 shows the means, standard deviations, and results of linear and logistic regressions examining associations between observed composites, the PSRA, and demographic characteristics. The regressions show that children’s demographics generally do not predict their behavior. However, we find that older children display more Productive Involvement and Prosocial Behaviors and Black children are rated as generally higher in both positive and negative affect. Further, Unregulated Behaviors is the only composites associated with the PSRA Total score. Overall, these results help us understand which social-emotional behaviors are observable and importantly demonstrate how these behaviors can be measured without the demographic bias often seen in teacher reports.

Authors

• Meghan Elizabeth McDoniel, Child Trends -Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Javier Omar, Stanford University

• Jelena Obradovic, Stanford University