Social validity assessment of social competence intervention target behaviors for preschoolers from the perspective of teachers and administrators.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

While the development of social competence comes naturally for many children, others have difficulty developing social skills and as a result are at risk for a variety of problems. There is a large body of empirical research on effective social competence interventions for young children with and without disabilities (Odom, McConnell, McEvoy, Peterson, Ostrosky, Chandler, Spicuzza, Skellenger, Creighron, & Favazza, 1999). Social validation is the subjective value judgement from society on the importance of a study for the levels of: (a) goals, (b) procedures, and (c) effects (Wolf, 1978).
The purpose of this dissertation was to first review the social validity assessment for classroom based social competence intervention literature for young children. After describing the lack of social validity assessment for this area of research, especially for the level of goals, a q-method study was proposed and conducted for the purpose of assessing the social validity of the target behaviors used in the social competence intervention literature. Participants (n = 36) were early childhood special educators, early childhood educators, and administrators who were currently serving young children. Results suggest that there are three distinct viewpoints about the most valued social competence target behaviors among participants: (a) valuing a reduction in negative verbal and physical behaviors and an increase in the rate of smiling, (b) valuing an increase in social interactions such as cooperative play and sharing, and (c) valuing communication skills and good manners. Limitations of the present study and recommendations for future research were provided.