Measurement Invariance of Children’s SEL Competencies

Abstract

Abstract. Although children use social and emotional learning skills (SEL) across the world, the expression of these skills may vary across cultures and developmental levels. Such variability complicates the process of assessing SEL competencies with consequences for understanding differences in SEL skills and developing interventions. To address these challenges, the current study examined the measurement invariance of translated versions of a brief, multi-informant (Teacher, Parent, Student) measure of SEL skills developed in the US with data from six European countries (Croatia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, and Romania; n = 10,602; 8,520; 6,611, for the SSIS SEL b – Teacher, Parent, and Student versions, respectively). In addition to cross-country invariance testing, we conducted measurement invariance testing across ages (Primary and Secondary students) for the Teacher and Student forms of the measure. Results revealed a high degree of measurement invariance across countries (Scalar for the Teacher form and Partial Scalar for the Parent and Student form) and developmental levels (Scalar for the Teacher form and Partial Scalar for the Student form), supporting the use of translated versions of the SSIS SEL b for international research across these countries and developmental levels. Implications are discussed for assessment and promoting children’s SEL competencies globally.

Measuring social and emotional learning skills of preschool children in Croatia : initial validation of the SSIS SEL Brief Scales

“…Notably, the SSIS SELb was recently translated into Croatian as part of a large-scale six-country project called Promoting Mental Health at Schools (Anthony et al, 2023;Cavioni et al, 2023b;Cefai et al, 2022aCefai et al, , 2022b. The thorough translation process was followed up by initial validation evidence exploring measurement invariance (Anthony et al, 2023) and cross-country validity (Anthony et al, 2022b) evidence for scores from the Croatian version of the measure.…”

“…Notably, the SSIS SELb was recently translated into Croatian as part of a large-scale six-country project called Promoting Mental Health at Schools (Anthony et al, 2023;Cavioni et al, 2023b;Cefai et al, 2022aCefai et al, , 2022b. The thorough translation process was followed up by initial validation evidence exploring measurement invariance (Anthony et al, 2023) and cross-country validity (Anthony et al, 2022b) evidence for scores from the Croatian version of the measure. Evidence was positive, providing a strong foundation for further validation and expansion in Croatia and other European countries, such as Romania, Italy, Portugal, Latvia and Greece (Colomeischi et al, 2022;Martinsone et al, 2022).…”

“…Based on prior evidence from U.S. (e.g., Anthony et al, 2022a) and European (e.g., Anthony 2022b; Anthony et al, 2023) samples, we anticipated that reliability would be high for the overall composite from the SSIS SELb and lower for SSIS SELb subscales. We expected the same pattern for concurrent validity correlations with a moderate positive relationship between SSIS SELb scores and concurrent validity measures of children's resilience.…”

A multi-component curriculum to promote teachers’ mental health: Findings from the PROMEHS program

“…The program has been designed both to enhance students' wellbeing and reduce their psychological difficulties, as well as to increase teachers' mental health by providing knowledge and practical tools on mental health promotion at school. Numerous studies have found that PROMEHS program increased students' mental health (Anthony et al, 2023;Anthony et al, 2022;Cefai et al, 2022b;Colomeischi et al, 2022;dos Santos et al, 2022); however, further research is required to evaluate its impact on teachers' mental health outcomes.…”

Editorial : Introduction to the special issue on assessing children’s social emotional learning to guide improvement programs

“…As mentioned earlier, the SSIS SELb were translated into six European languages for the PROMEHS program evaluation project. Measurement invariance and validity analyses were promising(Anthony et al, 2022b(Anthony et al, , 2023 in press) providing a solid basis for further extending the SSIS SELb to other countries, languages, and contexts. Two articles in this special issue specifically address this need for further evidence about the SSIS SELb.…”