Multi-informant validity evidence for the SSIS SEL Brief Scales across six European countries

Christopher J Anthony; Stephen N Elliott; Michayla Yost; Pui-Wa Lei; James C DiPerna; Carmel Cefai; Liberato Camilleri; Paul A Bartolo; Ilaria Grazzani; Veronica Ornaghi; Valeria Cavioni; Elisabetta Conte; Sanja Tatalović Vorkapić; Maria Poulou; Baiba Martinsone; Celeste Simões; Aurora Adina Colomeischi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.928189

Multi-informant validity evidence for the SSIS SEL Brief Scales across six European countries

Front Psychol. 2022 Aug 2:13:928189. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.928189. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Christopher J Anthony¹, Stephen N Elliott², Michayla Yost¹, Pui-Wa Lei³, James C DiPerna³, Carmel Cefai⁴, Liberato Camilleri⁴, Paul A Bartolo⁴, Ilaria Grazzani⁵, Veronica Ornaghi⁵, Valeria Cavioni⁵, Elisabetta Conte⁵, Sanja Tatalović Vorkapić⁶, Maria Poulou⁷, Baiba Martinsone⁸, Celeste Simões⁹, Aurora Adina Colomeischi¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ School of Special Education, School Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
² Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States.
³ Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.
⁴ Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
⁵ Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
⁶ Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia.
⁷ Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia.
⁹ Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
¹⁰ Faculty of Sciences in Education, Stefan cel Mare University, Suceava, Romania.

Abstract

The SSIS SEL Brief Scales (SSIS SELb) are multi-informant (teacher, parent, and student) measures that were developed to efficiently assess the SEL competencies of school-age youth in the United States. Recently, the SSIS SELb was translated into multiple languages for use in a multi-site study across six European countries (Croatia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, and Romania). The purpose of the current study was to examine concurrent and predictive evidence for the SEL Composite scores from the translated versions of the SSIS SELb Scales. Results indicated that SSIS SELb Composite scores demonstrated expected positive concurrent and predictive relationships with scores from the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and negative relationships with scores from the problem behavior scales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Although there were a few exceptions, these patterns generally were consistent across informants (parents, teachers, and students) and samples providing initial validity evidence for the Composite score from the translated versions of the SSIS SELb Scales. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Keywords: PROMEHS; SSIS SEL Brief Scales; concurrent validity; international assessment; predictive validity; social and emotional learning.