AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN BEHAVIORAL RATINGS OF SOCIAL SKILLS AND SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS OF PRIMARY-AGE CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

Parents ’ and teachers ’ ratings of social competence and problem behaviors for 164 special education students in grades K-3 were measured using the Social Skills Rating System. Weak to moderate relationships were found between parents ’ and teachers ’ ratings. Gender comparisons within the study group revealed mixed findings: teachers ’ ratings indicated that girls had better social skills but relatively similar levels of problem behaviors than boys, but parents’ ratings indicated that boys were rated as having higher levels of both social skills and problem behaviors than girls. These results provide some additional evidence for the convergent validity of the SSRS and also suggest that source and setting variance strongly influence behavior ratings. These results also raise some interesting questions regarding gender differences in social behavior of young children with disabilities. In recent years, the assessment of children’s social competence ha