A Measure of Young Children's Problem and Competence Behaviors: The Early School Behavior Scale

This paper reports on the development and the psychometric properties (reliabilities and validity) of the Early School Behavior Scale (ESBS), a 46-item measure of competencies and behavior problems among children aged 4 to 7. Factor analysis of the ESBS yielded three factors: Competence, Anxiety, and Conduct Problems, consistent with studies on older children. Subscales based on these factors were found to have adequate internal consistency reliability for screening purposes and to be related significantly to teachers' ratings of school adjustment. Gender differences were found in the pattern of these relations. The need for a brief measure of both competence and dysfunction among children in the preschool and early school years is discussed.