Social Problem Solving Scale

Abstract: The Social Problem Solving Scale assesses the way a child resolves problems encountered in typical social settings with other children. The scale contains eight drawings of social situations with children. An interviewer elicits information from the child that expresses how the child would interact with the children in each picture. The interviewer records a code for the child's response. The code represents one of six response categories. The drawings depict two types of social situations. Four of the situations show a solitary child who would like to join in an activity with other children. In these situations the child's task is to solicit social involvement. The other four drawings show a child who is being teased or frustrated by another child. In these situations the respondent's task is to resolve a social conflict. The drawings use stick figures so that race and gender are neutral. The interviewer reads a script describing each social situation, and asks the respondent to take the role of one of the children in the drawing. The interviewer prompts the child for three responses to each situation. Scoring is conducted as follows:

  1. The interviewer assigns the code for a response category to each verbal response for each picture. The categories and codes are: Aggressive (0), Competent (1), Authority-Punish (2), Authority-Intervene (3), Passive/Inept (4), Irrelevant/Other (5). If a response fits more than one category, it is assigned to the category with the lowest code number.
  2. The total number of valid responses for each picture is calculated. A valid response is a response that can be assigned to a category. Inept or irrelevant responses are valid. Repetitive responses are an example of invalid responses.
  3. The percent of responses in each category for each picture is calculated by dividing the number of responses in each category by the total number of valid responses. This calculation yields Picture response percentages.
  4. The mean of each response category percentage over the eight pictures is calculated to yield Mean-percentages across pictures.
T-tests of mean percentages across pictures (MPAs) show a significant difference between the normative and control groups for the Competent category and for the Authority/Punish category. Coefficient alphas are modest among the six categories. However, given that multiple interviewers administered the measure for year 2, and that the category assigned to each response is subject to the interviewer's judgment and interpretation, modest alphas are not surprising. For the control sample, except for the Competent category, the distribution of each mean percentage across pictures is positively skewed, and kurtosis is high (between 6.0 and 25.1, except for Aggression). For the normative sample, the distribution of MPAs is positively skewed with high kurtosis (between 5.2 and 35.2) for all categories, also except for the Competent category. Several categories show high frequencies of zero MPA. In the Irrelevant category, 90% of MPAs are zero in both the normative and control groups. In the control group, 40% of MPAs in the Passive category are zero; and 44% in the Authority/Punitive category. In the normative group, 41% of the Intervention MPAs, 47% of the Passive MPAs, and 55% of Authority/Punish MPAs are zero. As an estimate of difficulty, the mean number of responses per picture for the combined normative and control groups is in the table below. None of the eight pictures stands out as unusually difficult, compared to the other pictures.

Who Completed this Measure?: select one

Cohort 1 - Administrative History

  • Year 01 | K | age 6
  • Year 02 | grade 1 | age 7
  • Year 03 | grade 2 | age 8
  • Year 04 | grade 3 | age 9

Cohort 2 - Administrative History

  • Year 01 | K | age 6
  • Year 02 | grade 1 | age 7
  • Year 03 | grade 2 | age 8
  • Year 04 | grade 3 | age 9

Cohort 3 - Administrative History

  • Year 01 | K | age 6
  • Year 02 | grade 1 | age 7
  • Year 03 | grade 2 | age 8
  • Year 04 | grade 3 | age 9

Technical Reports:

Raw Dataset Name: CyB

Scored Dataset Name: SPSySCc

Keywords:
Conflict Resolution, Role Playing, , ,

Is this Measure Available for Public Use?: Yes

Obtain Measure:
Download the measure here

SAS Code for Scale Creation:
Download the code here

Measure Items and Scales:

COHORT Cohort
TCID Child's ID Number
SITE Study Site
TREATMNT Treatment Group (Interv/Cntl)
NORM Members of Normative Sample
sps2NA1 Num Agg resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2NA2 Num Agg resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2NA3 Num Agg resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2NA4 Num Agg resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2NA5 Num Agg resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2NA6 Num Agg resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2NA7 Num Agg resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2NA8 Num Agg resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2NC1 Num Com resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2NC2 Num Com resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2NC3 Num Com resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2NC4 Num Com resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2NC5 Num Com resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2NC6 Num Com resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2NC7 Num Com resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2NC8 Num Com resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2NU1 Num Pun resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2NU2 Num Pun resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2NU3 Num Pun resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2NU4 Num Pun resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2NU5 Num Pun resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2NU6 Num Pun resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2NU7 Num Pun resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2NU8 Num Pun resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2NI1 Num Int resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2NI2 Num Int resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2NI3 Num Int resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2NI4 Num Int resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2NI5 Num Int resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2NI6 Num Int resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2NI7 Num Int resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2NI8 Num Int resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2NP1 Num Pas resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2NP2 Num Pas resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2NP3 Num Pas resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2NP4 Num Pas resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2NP5 Num Pas resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2NP6 Num Pas resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2NP7 Num Pas resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2NP8 Num Pas resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2NR1 Num Irr resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2NR2 Num Irr resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2NR3 Num Irr resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2NR4 Num Irr resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2NR5 Num Irr resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2NR6 Num Irr resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2NR7 Num Irr resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2NR8 Num Irr resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2NN1 Num NR resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2NN2 Num NR resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2NN3 Num NR resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2NN4 Num NR resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2NN5 Num NR resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2NN6 Num NR resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2NN7 Num NR resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2NN8 Num NR resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2NT1 Total # of resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2NT2 Total # of resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2NT3 Total # of resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2NT4 Total # of resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2NT5 Total # of resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2NT6 Total # of resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2NT7 Total # of resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2NT8 Total # of resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2PA1 Pct Agg resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2PC1 Pct Com resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2PU1 Pct Pun resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2PI1 Pct Int resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2PP1 Pct Pas resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2PR1 Pct Irr resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2PN1 Pct NR resps to pic I SPS Y2
sps2PA2 Pct Agg resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2PC2 Pct Com resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2PU2 Pct Pun resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2PI2 Pct Int resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2PP2 Pct Pas resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2PR2 Pct Irr resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2PN2 Pct NR resps to pic J SPS Y2
sps2PA3 Pct Agg resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2PC3 Pct Com resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2PU3 Pct Pun resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2PI3 Pct Int resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2PP3 Pct Pas resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2PR3 Pct Irr resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2PN3 Pct NR resps to pic K SPS Y2
sps2PA4 Pct Agg resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2PC4 Pct Com resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2PU4 Pct Pun resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2PI4 Pct Int resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2PP4 Pct Pas resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2PR4 Pct Irr resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2PN4 Pct NR resps to pic L SPS Y2
sps2PA5 Pct Agg resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2PC5 Pct Com resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2PU5 Pct Pun resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2PI5 Pct Int resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2PP5 Pct Pas resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2PR5 Pct Irr resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2PN5 Pct NR resps to pic M SPS Y2
sps2PA6 Pct Agg resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2PC6 Pct Com resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2PU6 Pct Pun resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2PI6 Pct Int resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2PP6 Pct Pas resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2PR6 Pct Irr resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2PN6 Pct NR resps to pic N SPS Y2
sps2PA7 Pct Agg resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2PC7 Pct Com resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2PU7 Pct Pun resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2PI7 Pct Int resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2PP7 Pct Pas resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2PR7 Pct Irr resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2PN7 Pct NR resps to pic O SPS Y2
sps2PA8 Pct Agg resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2PC8 Pct Com resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2PU8 Pct Pun resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2PI8 Pct Int resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2PP8 Pct Pas resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2PR8 Pct Irr resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2PN8 Pct NR resps to pic P SPS Y2
sps2MPA Mean pct of Agg resps all pics SPS Y2
sps2MPC Mean pct of Com resps all pics SPS Y2
sps2MPU Mean pct of Pun resps all pics SPS Y2
sps2MPI Mean pct of Int resps all pics SPS Y2
sps2MPP Mean pct of Pas resps all pics SPS Y2
sps2MPR Mean pct of Irr resps all pics SPS Y2
c2totNR Total No Responses