title: Social Skills Questionnaire for Argentinean College Students (SSQ-U) Development and Validation.
abstract: In this paper we present a new instrument called Social Skills Questionnaire for Argentinean College Students (SSQ-U). Based on the adapted version of the Social Skills Inventory - Del Prette (SSI-Del Prette) (Olaz, Medrano, Greco, & Del Prette, 2009), we wrote new items for the scale, and carried out psychometric analysis to assess the validity and reliability of the instrument. In the first study, we collected evidence based on test content through expert judges who evaluated the quality and the relevance of the items. In the second and third studies, we provided validity evidence based on the internal structure of the instrument using exploratory (n = 1067) and confirmatory (n = 661) factor analysis. Results suggested a five-factor structure consistent with the dimensions of social skills, as proposed by Kelly (2002). The fit indexes corresponding to the obtained model were adequate, and composite reliability coefficients of each factor were excellent (above .75). Finally, in the fourth study, we provided evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. The obtained results allow us to conclude that the SSQ-U is the first valid and reliable instrument for measuring social skills in Argentinean college students.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina).
authors.forename: Valeria E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Morán
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina).
authors.forename: Fabián O
authors.initials: FO
authors.lastname: Olaz
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Brazil).
authors.forename: Zilda A P
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Del Prette
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001118:Argentina; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D066107:Social Skills; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: argentinean college students; assessment; instrumental study; social skills