Early Childhood Measurement and Evaluation
Tool Review
Early Childhood Measurement and Evaluation (ECME), a portfolio within CUP, produces
Early Childhood Measurement Tool Reviews as a resource for those who conduct screening,
assessment, and evaluation. To learn more about ECME and CUP, provide feedback, or to
access additional reviews, visit our website at www.cup.ualberta.ca or email us at
cup@ualberta.ca
Social Skills Rating System (SSRS)
Measurement Areas:
The Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) is a norm-referenced assessment tool that focuses on
social behaviour in pre-school, elementary, and secondary students. The SSRS focuses on the
following measurement areas:
1. Social Skills
2. Problem Behaviours
3. Academic Competence (in the Teacher report form)
Purpose:
The SRSS is a behaviour and personality assessment tool that can be used to:
• identify students at-risk for poor academic performance;
• differentiate learning impaired, behaviour disordered, or intellectually impaired children
from non-handicapped children;
• identify social behaviour strengths;
• inform school- or home-based behavioural interventions;
• compliment a comprehensive assessment with other measurement tools; and
• develop Individualized Educational Plans for students requiring social skills assistance.
Length and Structure:
The SRSS administration phase has separate questionnaire booklets for teachers, parents and the
student, all based on the student’s current educational level (i.e. pre-school, elementary, or
secondary). Administration time for the SRSS depends upon the number of rating scales used, and
the number of respondents selected for reporting. According to the manual a SRSS rating form
typically can be completed in 15-25 minutes; respondents are required to have at minimum grade
three reading level. Scoring generally takes approximately 5 minutes per questionnaire booklet.
Each questionnaire contains 34 to 57 items that assess the individual’s social behaviour. Each
items uses a 3-point scale (i.e. 0 = Never, 1 = Sometimes, 2 = Very Often) to describe the
individual’s typical behaviour.
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Raw scores from each form are transferred to subscale scores, and can be converted into scale
scores, percentile scores, behaviour levels, standard scores, and percentiles.
Materials:
The SSRS is published under a “Level B” qualification, which requires the purchaser to: (a) possess
a Master’s (or Doctorate) degree in psychology, education, or relevant field with training in
assessment, or (b) demonstrate equivalent training through licensure from a recognized clinical or
educational institution.
The SSRS is available from the publisher in kits according to age group at prices between CDN
$180 and $210. The kits generally include 10 copies of the parent, teacher and student
questionnaire booklets, 10 assessment-intervention records, and the manual. Larger kits that
include more than one educational level (i.e. preschool + elementary) are available at an
additional cost. Scoring software for both Mac and Windows is available from the publisher for
CDN $385.
Accessibility:
The SSRS checklists are available in the English language.
Administration, Scoring, and Interpretation:
The SSRS checklists can be completed by teachers, parents, and the examinee; according to the
publisher no special qualifications are necessary other than a grade three reading proficiency.
Paraprofessionals with appropriate supervision can score the checklists using the scoring
instructions in the manual.
As with other “Level B” instruments, score interpretation must only be completed by professionals
with formal graduate-level training or clinicians with training in psychological assessment. The
test is easy to administer, moderately easy to score, and moderately difficult to interpret based on
the clinician’s experience and interpretation guides in the manual.
Subscales:
The SSRS consists of three measurement areas: Social Skills, Problem Behaviours, and Academic
Competence. The Social Skills scale has five subscales: Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility,
Empathy, and Self-Control. The sum of the subscales yield “Behaviour Levels” that indicate the
descriptive frequency (based on cutoff scores) of a particular behaviour. The Problem
Behaviours scale includes three subscales: Externalizing Problems, Internalizing Problems, and
Hyperactivity. Similar to the previous measurement area, these can be translated into “Behaviour
Levels” by summing the item scores. The Academic Competence measurement area is a single
scale without subscales. All subscale scores can be summed to provide standard scores and
percentile ranks based on the normative sample.
Documentation:
The manual included in the SSRS kit contains specific procedures for administration, scoring, and
extensive sections on interpretation. The manual also has sections discussing the normative
sample, standardization, validity, reliability, and a lengthy section discussing the development of
intervention plans.
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Normative Sample:
The SRSS tool was normed using an American sample of 4,170 children (self-rated), as well as a
sample of 1,027 parents who rated their children, and a sample of 259 teachers who rated their
students, all completed in 1988. According to the manual, the aforementioned samples consisted
of students from a wide variety of educational classifications, including “learning-disabled”,
“behaviourally-disordered”, and “mentally handicapped” children. Non-classified students
accounted for approximately 82% of the samples. The majority of classified students were in the
“learning-disabled” category (59%). In terms of race or ethnic representation, 27% of the samples
consisted of “minority” students, compared to the U.S. population, which consists of 31%
“minorities” according to 1988 statistics. Black, Hispanic, “Other,” and White are the indicated
races in the manual. There is no entry for First Nations or Aboriginal groups. The manual contains
more specific demographic information for these samples.
Reliability:
The SSRS manual discusses two kinds of reliability measures that were developed based on data
from the aforementioned samples.
Internal Consistency: An analysis of internal consistency yielded average coefficient alpha
reliabilities (across all forms and educational levels) of .90 for the Social Skills scale, .84 for the
Problem Behaviours scale, and .95 for the Academic Competence scale. According to a study
conducted by Diperna and Volpe (2005), the SSRS self-rating form demonstrated “adequate
internal consistency” when it was validated using a sample of 185 students.
Test-retest Reliability: Respondents on the SSRS for the elementary-aged sample were given the
test a second time 4 weeks after the initial administration. According to the manual, teacher scores
correlated between .84 and .93 across all three scales, parent scores correlated at .65 on the
Problem Behaviours scale and .80 on the Social Skills scale, and student self-rating scores
correlated at .68 on the Social Skills scale. Test-retest reliability scores were not obtained for the
preschool population.
Validity:
The SSRS manual includes an extensive section on test validity. According to the authors, the SSRS
was developed using content that came from literature searches and item selection by clinicians,
parents, and other education professionals.
Construct and Convergent Validity: Several score comparison studies were conducted using the
SSRS and a variety of other tools. For the Teacher forms, the authors performed 3 validation
studies. One study compared the SRSS Teacher form with the Social Behavior Assessment (SBA)
tool using a sample of teachers who rated 79 elementary students. According to the authors, the
correlations between the SSRS and SBA were “consistent with theoretical expectations,” generally
in the .50s and .60s, suggesting that the two tools are “measuring similar constructs.”
The second study compared SSRS scores to the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report Form
(CBCL-TRF) using a sample of 99 elementary students. The results suggest that the SSRS
Elementary Teacher Form and CBCL-TRF both measure similar aspects of “behavioural problems”.
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The SSRS Teacher form was also compared to the Harter Teacher Rating Scale (TRS), yielding
correlations in the .50s and .60s, suggesting a relatively moderate relation between the tools.
In addition, the authors compared the SSRS Elementary Parent form with the CBCL-Parent Report
Form. While correlations between the SSRS Social Skills subscales and the CBCL subscales were
weak (in the .20s and .30s), substantially stronger correlations were found between the SSRS
Problem Behaviours subscales and the CBCL subscales (between the .40s and .70s).
The authors also compared the Student Self-Rating forms with two other tools: the CBCL-Youth
Self-Report Form (YSR) and the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale (Piers-Harris 2). Using a
sample of 47 students, the comparison between the SSRS Student forms and the CBCL-YSR forms
yielded low to moderate correlations (.20s and .40s) for several subscales between the tools.
Using a sample of 79 students in the second study, the correlations between the SSRS Student
forms and PHCSCS were low to moderate for the Social Skills scale when compared to the Self-
Concept scale, respectively.
Finally, according to the manual a study performed by Walker and McConnell (1988) showed “a
correlation of .75 between the Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School
Adjustment and the tryout version of the SSRS Teacher form,” suggesting that the tools similarly
measure aspects of social skills and educational competence.
Publication Information:
The Social Skills Rating System was developed by Frank M. Gresham and Stephen N. Elliott. This
review is based on the edition published in 1990 by American Guidance Service.
Materials Used for Tool Review:
• Social Skills Rating System manual
• Academic studies
References:
Diperna, J.C., & Volpe, R.J. (2005). Self-report on the Social Skills Rating System: Analysis of
reliability and validity for an elementary sample. Psychology in the Schools, 42(4), 345-354.
Gresham, F.M., & Elliott, S.N. (1990). Social Skills Rating System manual. Circle Pines, MN: AGS.
__________________________
How to cite this document: This document was created for CUP. However to cite this
document use the following:
Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families (2011). Review
of the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
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