A reassessment of the Kohn Social Competence Scale and the Walker Problem Behavior Identification Checklist

The growing interest in the constructs of social competence and withdrawal warrants attention to the qualities of the various assessment instruments. The authors of two of these, the Kohn Social Competence Scale and the Walker Problem Behavior Identification Checklist, claim that their devices measure, respectively, two and five independent factors. The present study assesses the validity of this assertion by having three teachers and three assistant teachers of six kindergarten classes (98 children) independently complete the scales for their students. Correlations found between previously identified factors of both devices are high enough to suggest nonindependence of the factors and thus a need for reassessment of both instruments.