Development and Validation of the Social Emotional Competence Scale for Young Children

Objectives The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a social emotional competence scale for young children aged 3 to 5 years that can be measured by early childhood teachers in early childhood education institutions. Methods To this end, first, a review of literature and previous studies and an open survey were conducted to derive the constituent factors of the concept definition and scale of young children social emotional competency, and a draft of scale questions was prepared based on this. Second, the content validity was verified by conducting Delphi surveys twice. Third, to validate the scale, this survey was conducted on 322 infants aged 3 to 5, and 144 of the collected data were surveyed for exploratory factor analysis, and the remaining 178 were verified for Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Results First, as a result of reviewing literature and previous studies and an open survey, seven sub-factors and a total of 133 questions were derived. Second, as a result of the Delphi survey, four sub-factors and a total of 59 questions were selected. Third, as a result of exploratory factor analysis, four sub-factors and a total of 33 questions were derived. Fourth, as a result of confirmatory factor analysis, the young children social emotional competence scale consisted of 26 questions, including 4 sub-factors of self-awareness (6 questions), self-management (5 questions), social consciousness (7 questions), and relationship management (8 questions). Fifth, the reliability range of the sub-factors was .878 to .923, which was an appropriate level. Conclusions First, it was confirmed that the young children social emotional competence scale developed in this study was suitable for reliability and validity. Second, this study is meaningful in that it developed a scale that can measure social and emotional capabilities for young children aged 3 to 5. Third, it is expected that programs that can improve the social and emotional capabilities of young children can be developed and used in various studies by accurately measuring the social and emotional capabilities of young children.