Self-Assessment of Social-Emotional Skills in Primary Students: Psychometric Evaluation of the Digital Screening Instrument GraSEF.

Abstract

Early assessment of social-emotional skills is crucial for identifying children at risk and implementing targeted interventions. To address the scarcity of reliable self-reports for young children, we developed the GraSEF, a digital screening instrument for primary students. GraSEF utilizes a situational judgment format to assess internalizing/externalizing behavior, social withdrawal, problem-solving, alongside self-reports for prosocial behavior and emotion regulation strategies. This study examines the instrument's psychometric properties in a sample of 474 s-graders in Austria (Mage = 7.66 years, SD = 0.42; 52.1% girls). Divergent and convergent validity were examined via teacher- and self-report scales. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a robust six-factor model with scalar invariance across gender and family language. Results demonstrated acceptable to good internal consistency, and stable test-retest reliability. However, low student-teacher agreement was observed, which warrant further investigation. GraSEF proves to be a reliable instrument for assessing student's social-emotional skills and behavior problems.