Assessing social cognitive skills in aggressive children from a developmental perspective: the social cognitive skills test

Abstract The development and psychometric evaluation of the Social Cognitive Skills Test (SCST) for (aggressive) children is described. The SCST is based on the structural developmental approach of social cognition by Selman and Byrne (1974) and consists of six short stories with corresponding pictures. Each story measures eight social cognitive skills. The SCST takes into account the developmental level of the (aggressive) child and his/her social information processing deficits. Three studies were conducted to explore the psychometric qualities of the SCST. Study 1 ( n = 47) supported the notion that (a) the SCST discriminates between aggressive and non‐aggressive children, and that (b) there is a descending trend in SCST‐scores as social cognitive skills increase in complexity. Study 2 ( n = 115) confirmed the findings of Study 1 and further revealed (a) no differences in the scores on the SCST between reactive and proactive aggressive children, and (b) a positive association between chronological age and social cognitive level of the aggressive and non‐aggressive children. Finally, Study 3 ( n = 48) confirmed the previous findings and found that aggressive children have difficulty verbalizing their thoughts, feelings and intentions and show a lack in non‐verbal social understanding. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.