Protocol for a prospective, school-based standardisation study of a digital social skills assessment tool for children: The Paediatric Evaluation of Emotions, Relationships, and Socialisation (PEERS) study

Emma J Thompson, Miriam H Beauchamp, Simone J Darling, Stephen J C Hearps, Amy Brown, George Charalambous, Louise Crossley, David Darby, Julian J Dooley, Mardee Greenham, Mohinder Jaimangal, Skye McDonald, Frank Muscara, Lyn Turkstra, Vicki A Anderson, Emma J Thompson, Miriam H Beauchamp, Simone J Darling, Stephen J C Hearps, Amy Brown, George Charalambous, Louise Crossley, David Darby, Julian J Dooley, Mardee Greenham, Mohinder Jaimangal, Skye McDonald, Frank Muscara, Lyn Turkstra, Vicki A Anderson

Abstract

Background: Humans are by nature a social species, with much of human experience spent in social interaction. Unsurprisingly, social functioning is crucial to well-being and quality of life across the lifespan. While early intervention for social problems appears promising, our ability to identify the specific impairments underlying their social problems (eg, social communication) is restricted by a dearth of accurate, ecologically valid and comprehensive child-direct assessment tools. Current tools are largely limited to parent and teacher ratings scales, which may identify social dysfunction, but not its underlying cause, or adult-based experimental tools, which lack age-appropriate norms. The present study describes the development and standardisation of Paediatric Evaluation of Emotions, Relationships, and Socialisation (PEERS®), an iPad-based social skills assessment tool.

Methods: The PEERS project is a cross-sectional study involving two groups: (1) a normative group, recruited from early childhood, primary and secondary schools across metropolitan and regional Victoria, Australia; and (2) a clinical group, ascertained from outpatient services at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne (RCH). The project aims to establish normative data for PEERS®, a novel and comprehensive app-delivered child-direct measure of social skills for children and youth. The project involves recruiting and assessing 1000 children aged 4.0-17.11 years. Assessments consist of an intellectual screen, PEERS® subtests, and PEERS-Q, a self-report questionnaire of social skills. Parents and teachers also complete questionnaires relating to participants' social skills. Main analyses will comprise regression-based continuous norming, factor analysis and psychometric analysis of PEERS® and PEERS-Q.

Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval has been obtained through the RCH Human Research Ethics Committee (34046), the Victorian Government Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (002318), and Catholic Education Melbourne (2166). Findings will be disseminated through international conferences and peer-reviewed journals. Following standardisation of PEERS®, the tool will be made commercially available.

Keywords: adolescent; child; development; social cognition; test measurement.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors would like to declare that although the PEERS app was intended to be a freely available research tool at the commencement of its design, it is now likely to be a commercial product. VA, MHB, GC, DD, JJD, SJD, MJ, SMD, FM and LT all declare a pending patent on the PEERS app. GC and MJ declare fees received from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute for services rendered in the development of the PEERS app. VA, SJD, FM and LT report grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council for the present study. DD reports fees received from The Royal Children’s Hospital.

© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
SOCIAL: a biopsychosocial model of social competency (from Beauchamp and Anderson14).
Figure 2
Figure 2
A screenshot of the Paediatric Evaluation of Emotions, Relationships, and Socialisation (PEERS®) subtest Finding Emo.

References

    1. Blakemore SJ. The developing social brain: implications for education. Neuron 2010;65:744–7. 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.004
    1. Denham SA, Wyatt TM, Bassett HH, et al. . Assessing social-emotional development in children from a longitudinal perspective. J Epidemiol Community Health 2009;63:i37–52. 10.1136/jech.2007.070797
    1. OECD. Skills for social progress: the power of social and emotional skills. Paris: OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, 2015.
    1. Reichow B, Steiner AM, Volkmar F. Social skills groups for people aged 6 to 21 with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012:266–315.
    1. Frith U, Frith C. The social brain: allowing humans to boldly go where no other species has been. Philos Trans R Soc London Ser B Biol Sci 2010;365:165–76. 10.1098/rstb.2009.0160
    1. Rosema S, Crowe L, Anderson V. Social function in children and adolescents after traumatic brain injury: a systematic review 1989-2011. J Neurotrauma 2012;29:1277–91. 10.1089/neu.2011.2144
    1. Uekermann J, Kraemer M, Abdel-Hamid M, et al. . Social cognition in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2010;34:734–43. 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.10.009
    1. Wehmeier PM, Schacht A, Barkley RA. Social and emotional impairment in children and adolescents with ADHD and the impact on quality of life. J Adolesc Health 2010;46:209–17. 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.09.009
    1. Kavale KA, Mostert MP. Social skills interventions for individuals with learning disabilities. Learn Disabil Q 2004;27:31–43. 10.2307/1593630
    1. Bryan T, Burstein K, Ergul C. The social-emotional side of learning disabilities: a science-based presentation of the state of the art. Learn Disabil Q 2004;27:45–51. 10.2307/1593631
    1. Rapee RM, Spence SH. The etiology of social phobia: empirical evidence and an initial model. Clin Psychol Rev 2004;24:737–67. 10.1016/j.cpr.2004.06.004
    1. Hamiwka LD, Hamiwka LA, Sherman EM, et al. . Social skills in children with epilepsy: how do they compare to healthy and chronic disease controls? Epilepsy Behav 2011;21:238–41. 10.1016/j.yebeh.2011.03.033
    1. Martinez W, Carter JS, Legato LJ. Social competence in children with chronic illness: a meta-analytic review. J Pediatr Psychol 2011;36:878–90. 10.1093/jpepsy/jsr035
    1. Beauchamp MH, Anderson V. Social: an integrative framework for the development of social skills. Psychol Bull 2010;136:39–64. 10.1037/a0017768
    1. Heckman JJ. Skill formation and the economics of investing in disadvantaged children. Science 2006;312:1900–2. 10.1126/science.1128898
    1. Shonkoff JP, Phillips DA. From neurons to neighborhoods: the science of early childhood development. Washington, DC: National Academy of Press, 2000.
    1. Webster-Stratton C, Reid J. Strengthening social and emotional competence in young children-the foundation for early school readiness and success: incredible years classroom social skills and problem-solving curriculum. Infants Young Child 2004;17:96–113.
    1. Parker JG, Asher SR. Peer relations and later personal adjustment: are low-accepted children at risk? Psychol Bull 1987;102:357–89. 10.1037/0033-2909.102.3.357
    1. Crowe LM, Beauchamp MH, Catroppa C, et al. . Social function assessment tools for children and adolescents: a systematic review from 1988 to 2010. Clin Psychol Rev 2011;31:767–85. 10.1016/j.cpr.2011.03.008
    1. Muscara F, Crowe L. Measuring social skills with questionnaires and rating scales : Anderson VA, Beauchamp MH, Developmental social neuroscience and childhood brain insult: theory and practice. New York: The Guilford Press, 2012:119–38.
    1. Beer JS, Ochsner KN. Social cognition: a multi level analysis. Brain Res 2006;1079:98–105. 10.1016/j.brainres.2006.01.002
    1. McDonald S, Flanagan S, Rollins J. The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT). Austin, TX: Harcourt Assessment, 2002.
    1. Dooley JJ, Beauchamp M, Anderson VA. The measurement of sociomoral reasoning in adolescents with traumatic brain injury: a pilot investigation. Brain Impairment 2010;11:152–61. 10.1375/brim.11.2.152
    1. Turkstra LS. Conversation-based assessment of social cognition in adults with traumatic brain injury. Brain Inj 2008;22:397–409. 10.1080/02699050802027059
    1. McCauley SR, Wilde EA, Anderson VA, et al. . Recommendations for the use of common outcome measures in pediatric traumatic brain injury research. J Neurotrauma 2012;29:678–705. 10.1089/neu.2011.1838
    1. Chiasson V, Vera-Estay E, Lalonde G, et al. . Assessing social cognition: age-related changes in moral reasoning in childhood and adolescence. Clin Neuropsychol 2017;31:515–30. 10.1080/13854046.2016.1268650
    1. Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. ICSEA 2013: technical report. 2014.
    1. Manly T, Anderson V, Crawford F, et al. . Test of everyday attention for children. 2nd edn(TEA-Ch2) London, UK: Pearson Clinical, 2016.
    1. Kohlberg L. The psychology of moral development: essays on moral development. 2 San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984.
    1. Crick NR, Dodge KA. Social information-processing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression. Child Dev 1996;67:993–1002. 10.2307/1131875
    1. Greene JD, Sommerville RB, Nystrom LE, et al. . An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science 2001;293:2105–8. 10.1126/science.1062872
    1. Ekman P. Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion Cole JK, Nebraska symposium on motivation. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1971:207–84.
    1. Muscara F, Catroppa C, Beauchamp MH, et al. . Challenges faced and lessons learned in the development of a new measure of social competence for children and adolescents With Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). Brain Impairment 2010;11:162–70. 10.1375/brim.11.2.162
    1. Weschler D. Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence–. 4th edn (WPPSI-IV) San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation, 2012.
    1. Weschler D. Wechsler abbreviated scale of intelligence. 2nd edn (WASI-II) San Antonio, TX: NCS Pearson, 2011.
    1. Gresham F, Elliott S. Social skills improvement system (SSIS) rating scales. Bloomington, Minnesota: NCS Pearson, 2008.
    1. Goodman R. The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: a research note. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 1997;38:581–6. 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01545.x
    1. Stone LL, Otten R, Engels RC, et al. . Psychometric properties of the parent and teacher versions of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire for 4- to 12-year-olds: a review. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 2010;13:254–74. 10.1007/s10567-010-0071-2
    1. Goodman R. Psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2001;40:1337–45. 10.1097/00004583-200111000-00015
    1. Gonzalez LM, Anderson VA, Wood SJ, et al. . The observer memory questionnaire-parent form: introducing a new measure of everyday memory for children. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2008;14:337–42. 10.1017/S135561770808020X
    1. Harris PA, Taylor R, Thielke R, et al. . Research electronic data capture (REDCap)-a metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support. J Biomed Inform 2009;42:377–81. 10.1016/j.jbi.2008.08.010
    1. Cronbach LJ. Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika 1951;16:297–334. 10.1007/BF02310555
    1. McGraw KO, Wong SP. Forming inferences about some intraclass correlation coefficients. Psychol Methods 1996;1:30–46. 10.1037/1082-989X.1.1.30

Source: PubMed

Patrocinadores e Colaboradores

Condições médicas

Intervenções de drogas

3
Se inscrever