Psychometric Properties of the Social and Emotional Health Survey With a Small Sample of Academically At-Risk Adolescents
Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment
Published online on November 06, 2015
Abstract
The present study examines the psychometric properties of the Social and Emotional Health Survey (SEHS), which is a 32-item self-report behavior rating scale for assessing youths’ social–emotional competencies, with a small sample (N = 77) of academically at-risk students attending a limited-residency charter school. This study is the first to explore the technical adequacy of the SEHS with a concentrated sample of at-risk youth in an alternative school context, located in a different geographic locale compared with the SEHS’s original development samples. Findings indicate that the SEHS composite scales were internally reliable and demonstrated internal convergent validity with each other as well as external discriminant validity with indicators of teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results also indicate that several of the SEHS’s subscales had poor internal reliability in the present sample, and thus the usefulness of the subscales for applied purposes seems questionable. Limitations of the present study and implications for future research and practice are discussed.