Psychometric properties of the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY) with emotional problems and self concept in deaf children.

In Study One the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY) was scored by teachers for 96 deaf children ranging from normal intelligence through mentally retarded. Inter-item and split-half correlations were high, and internal consistency of particular items correlated to the scale as a whole was high. Items that were particularly spurious were looking and smiling at others, an interesting finding since these social behaviors are frequently targeted in treatment research. Therefore, re-evaluating behaviors which should receive priority for treatment may need to be considered at least with deaf children. In Study Two, these children were evaluated on social (MESSY) and emotional behavior (AML), and self-concept (Piers-Harris). Correlations between scales showed the greatest relationship between social and emotional responses. The implications of these data are discussed.