The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory: A Spanish Adaptation and Further Validation in Adult Population

Álvaro Postigo, Covadonga González-Nuevo, Jaime García-Fernández, Eduardo García-Cueto, Christopher J. Soto, Christopher M. Napolitano, Brent W. Roberts, Marcelino Cuesta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills encompass a broad range of interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities that are crucial for establishing and maintaining relationships, managing emotions, setting and pursuing goals, and exploring new learning opportunities. To address the lack of consensus regarding terminology, definition, and assessment of SEB skills, Soto et al. developed the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI), which consists of 192 items, 32 facets, and 5 domains. The objective of the current study was to adapt the BESSI to Spanish (referred to as BESSI-Sp) and enhance the overall understanding of the BESSI framework. A sample of 303 people was employed with a mean age of 30.35 years (SD = 14.73), ranging from 18 to 85 years. The results indicate that the BESSI-Sp demonstrates strong psychometric properties. Its facet- and domain-level structure aligns with the theoretical expectations and closely resembles the English-language source version. The facets exhibit high reliability (mean ω =.89), and the scores demonstrate adequate stability after 3 to 4 weeks (mean rICC =.77). The BESSI-Sp also displays evidence of convergent validity and integrates well with the Big Five framework, providing incremental validity for various outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings for the assessment of SEB skills and future research in this field.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1525-1547
Number of pages23
JournalAssessment
Volume31
Issue number7
Early online dateFeb 4 2024
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2024

Keywords

  • assessment
  • BESSI
  • noncognitive skills
  • socioemotional skills
  • Spanish

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Psychology
  • Applied Psychology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory: A Spanish Adaptation and Further Validation in Adult Population'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this