Early childhood social competence scale (EC-SCS): Factor structure and psychometric properties

Abstract

The Early Childhood Social Competence Scale (EC-SCS) was elaborated to evaluate social behavior on behalf of others in infantile populations. Due to the emergence and development of these behaviors from very early ages, the interest in its assessment is high from a developmental, educational, and applied perspective. The aim of the present study is to develop a Spanish population version of the scale, considering a specific dimensional structure. It was tested with a sample of 504 children of ages between 3 and 5 years, enrolled in school centers of infantile education. The results show that the new version of the instrument is a suitable measure for the assessment of social competence behaviors in early infancy. The joint consideration of prosocial and unfriendly behavior is important as it allows for the promotion of social competence behaviors and optimizes the detection of and intervention in behavioral problems later in life.