About the Measure
Domains | Social and Emotional Competence |
Key stages | Key Stage 1 |
Subscales | Social skills: Social cooperation; Social interaction; Social independenceProblem behaviour: Self-centred/Explosive; Attention problems/Overactive; Social withdrawal; Anxiety/Somatic problems |
Description | The Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales (PKBS) is a behavioural rating instrument for use in evaluating social skills and problem behaviour patterns of preschool and kindergarten-aged children (ages 3, 4, 5, and 6). It is a norm-referenced, standardized instrument developed specifically for use in assessing young children in a variety of settings and by a variety of behavioural informants. |
Example | Works or plays independently |
Link | http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED378210.pdf |
Psychometry | |
Implementation |
Implementation details
No. of items | 76 |
Format | Likert |
Respondent | Parent/Teacher |
Scoring | Standardised |
Time | 8 |
Age | 3-6 |
Cost single purchase | Free |
Cost per child | Free |
Psychometric details
UK norms | No |
Cronbach's α | .81-.97 |
Test retest | After 3 weeks, r= [.58,.87]; After 3 months, r= [.36,.78] |
Inter-rater reliability | r= [.36,.63] |
EFA | 2 EFAs for subsc |
CFA | Not reported |
Criterion validity | 90.18% of the grouped cases had been correctly classified in special education status groups based solely on the critical statistical properties of the PKBS scores |
Construct validity | Factorial validity. Factor structure stable across different specifications. Convergent: Correlation with Social Skills Rating System (SSRS), r= [.32,.76] Convergent: Correlation with Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY), r= [.22,.85] Convergent: Conners Teacher Rating Scales (CTRS -39), r= [.10,.90] Convergent: Correlation with School Social Behavior Scales (SSBS), r= [.36,.83] |
Concurrent validity | Not reported |
Predictive validity | Not reported |
Responsiveness | Not reported |
Floor/Ceiling | Not reported |
References | Merrell K. 1994. Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales. Test Manual. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED378210 |