THE MEASUREMENT OF PERCEIVED COMPETENCE AND SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE IN PRESCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

Abstract

A new piotorial scale of prceived competence and social acceptance for preschool age children according to Harter & Pike (1984) is givn below. This scale is for 5 and 6-year-old children and concerns four domains: cognitive competence, physical competence, peer acceptance, and maternal acceptace. Factor analyaes reveal a two-factor solution: the frsit factor, General Competence, is defined by the cognitive and physical competence subscales, as the second factor, Social Acceptance, constitutes the peer and maternal acceptance subscales. The psychometric properties are found to be acceptable. High scores of both the cognitive and physical competence subscales are discussed mainly in terms of the young child's tendency to confuse the wish of competency with reality.