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Social Skills Rating

System
By Stephanie Janzen
Published by Pearson
Is norm referenced (sample of 4,170) and has separate
norms for boys and girls.
Requires Level B qualifications
The Social Skills Rating System focuses on: social skills,
problem behaviors, academic competence (in teacher
report form)


Product Information
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Use SSRS to:
Assess children who have problems with behavior and
interpersonal skills

Identify students at-risk for poor academic performance

Detect the problems behind shyness, trouble initiating
conversation, and difficulty making friends

Select behaviors for treatment and assist in planning
intervention
Forms
Teacher
Parent
Student
Preschool
Elementary
Secondary
3 Ratings Forms Age Groups
Subscales
Social Skills
Cooperation
Assertion
Responsibility
Empathy
Self-Control
Problem
Behaviours
Externalizing
Problems
Internalizing
Problems
Hyperactivity
Academic
Competence
A single scale
without
subscales
Each takes approx. 15-25 min on average
Procedure: Checklists can be completed by teacher,
parents or examinee (with 3
rd
grade reading level).
Easily completed.
Each questionnaire contains 34-57 items
Answers are on a Likert-type
scale based on the frequency and
importance of the behavior.

0=never 1=sometimes 2=very often

Ease of Administration
Administration = easy & quick
Scoring takes 5 minutes
Raw scores from each form transferred
to subscale scores, and converted to
scale scores, behavior levels, standard
scores and percentile.
Interpretation = moderately difficult
(professional). New version has
electronic scorers
Scoring
10 copies of each type of questionnaire booklet
10 assessment-intervention records & manual
Larger kits include more than one education level (additional cost)
Scoring software for Mac & Windows available from publisher ($385)
Materials
Results produce an Assessment-Intervention
record (AIR) which combines the perspectives
of each rater on a single form.

ASSIST for SSRS provides clear
behavioral objectives and
suggestions for planning
intervention (available separately).
Intervention Planning
Internal Consistency: Yielded average coefficient alpha
reliabilities of .90 for the Social Skills scale, .84 for the Problem
Behaviors scale, and .95 for the Academic Competence scale. It
is said to have adequate internal consistency when it was
validated using a sample of 185 students.

Test-retest Reliability: Respondents for the elementary-ages
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, parent scores correlated at .65 on
the PB scale and .80 on the SS scale, and the student self-rating
scores correlated at .68 on the SS scale
Reliability
Construct & Convergent Validity: Comparison between SSRS and
Social Behavior Assessment (SBA) was consistent with
theoretical expectations and are both measuring similar
constructs.

Also compared SSRS with CBCL-Youth Self Report (YSR) and
Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (Piers-Harris 2). This
yielded low to moderate correlations for several subscale scores.

A study performed by Walker and McConnell showed .75
correlations between the Walker-McConnell Scale of Social
Competence and School Adjustment and the SSRS Teacher form.
Validity
General Evaluation
Generally positive for this rating system
Is said to be extremely effective
CONS
- Professionally graded
- Could be difficult to
grade based on the
clinicians experience and
interpretation guides in
manual
- Outdated norms
-No Canadian norms
PROS
- Highly reliable
- Time efficient
- Relatively inexpensive
- Easy to use
- Forms can be done
separately
- Benefits of AIR
- Large sample