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Social skills are interpersonal behaviors that help the
individual in society. These skills are needed to get along at
school, on the playground, and at home. Children with poor social
skills tend to be unpopular, unhappy, and maladjusted. Children with
disabilities are especially likely to show poor social skills. Adults
with poor social skills tend to fail at work and may have few friends.
The MESSY was developed in 1981 as a psychometric alternative
to behavioral role play tests, which had been shown to be unreliable.
The items were selected to include a wide range of verbal and
nonverbal behavior. The instrument consists of a 62-item Self-Rating
version and a 64-item Teacher Rating scale. The items refer to
discrete, observable behaviors rather than to global personality
traits. For example, the MESSY has items like, "Makes other
people laugh" rather than, "Has a good sense of humor."
The MESSY provides scales for both appropriate and
inappropriate social skills so that users do not focus exclusively on
the negative aspects of a child's behavior but also take into account
positive aspects. Examples of appropriate skills are, "Helps a
friend who is hurt" and "Walks up to people to start a
conversation." Examples of inappropriate skills are, "Gives
other children dirty looks" and "Wants to get even with
someone who hurt him/her."
The norms, based on 1,164 children, are broken down by age and
gender. Alpha coefficient of internal reliability is .93 (Teacher
Form) and .80 (Self-Report Form).
The MESSY is an established instrument that has been reviewed
favorably. This measure is often found in the literature and played a
significant role in the study of social skills of children.
Scientific Foundation
Peer-reviewed studies have shown the factor validity,
concurrent validity, and construct validity of the MESSY.
1. The scales are based on two factor studies with a total N
of 744
2.Scores on the Messy were shown to correlate positively with
the results of teacher ratings', popularity in the classroom, and
with children's proposed solutions to social dilemmas.
3.Score on the MESSY were shown to correlate negatively with
symptoms of psychopathology, such as anxiety and depression, with the
Child Behavior Checklist, and with the Pier-Harris Self-Concept
4.Hearing and vision disabilities were shown to be associated
with low scores on the MESSY.
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Refrences
Matson, J.L., Rotatori, A. F., & Helsel, W. J. (1983).
Development of a rating scale to measure social skills in children.
The Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY).
Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21, 335-340
Matson, J.L., Esveldt-Dawson, K., & Kazdin, A. E. (1983).
Validation of methods for assessing social skills in children.
Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 12, 174-180. |
