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Social behavior and sociometric status of pre-school children attending kindergartens
Maja Zupančič, Alenka Gril & Tina Kavčič
Full text (pdf) | Views: 48 | Written in Slovene. | Published: June 1, 2001
Abstract: The measures of temporal reliability and criterion validity of the Slovenian version of Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale – Preschool Edition (SV-P) are presented and discussed in the present contribution. Test-retest reliability indexes of the basic and composite scales were obtained with a sample of 39 children assessed in a two-month interval, while the temporal stability coefficients were obtained with an independent sample of 48 children evaluated after a six-month interval. All of the temporal reliability measures were proven sufficiently high. Sociometric indicators of a child's popularity and peer rejection were chosen as an external criterion to verify the concurrent validity of the SV-P. All of the children attending the same kindergarten groups as the target children (N=54) participated in a sociometric test. It was implemented in a form of combined nomination and paired-comparison technique using a group photo of the children in a kindergarten group. The results of the composite scales of SV-P – Social Competence, Internalizing Problems, Externalizing Problems and Genaral Adaptation – were related to the children's sociometric positions within the kindergarten group in the expected directions and to a satisfactory degree. In addition, the results obtained by the sociometric procedure with a sample of 210 children were analysed. They highlight the proportions of kindergarten children classified into different sociometric statuses - popular, neglected, rejected, controversial and average – and suggest that during the early childhood the children clearly prefer their same-sex peers.
Keywords: social behavior, sociometric status, preschool children, temporal reliability, criterion validity, questionnaires
