A Construct Score Approach to the Assessment of Social Competence

This article provides a selected review of the knowledge base on social competence in children. Using the existing literature on social competence as a point of departure, a case is made that (a) a social competence construct score approach to assessing social competence is needed, (b) theoretical and empirical advances in the social competence knowledge base and in microcomputer video assessment technology make such an approach feasible, and (c) direct assessment of children's knowledge and perceptions of key social situations, tasks, and skills can now be accomplished with far greater precision and validity than heretofore. These developments now make it possible to profile and aggregate children's social competence across four important domain areas commonly sampled in assessing social competence (i.e., sociometric procedures, direct observations in natural settings, parent and teacher ratings, and direct assessments of children's knowledge and perceptions of social stimuli). Social competence construct scores, developed at both global and specific levels, can be used to construct such profiles.