Admin: Individual or group
The MSCS is intended to be used as both a screening instrument and a comprehensive diagnostic scale. It can be combined with other instruments to assess the child's/adolescent's global self-concept and specific areas of social-emotional functioning. The MSCS can contribute to a broader understanding of the child/adolescent by allowing context-dependent contrasts to be made across various constructs (e.g., intelligence, achievement, adaptive behavior, creativity, social-emotional functioning).
The MSCS can be administered either to individuals or to groups in approximately 20 minutes. The scale is simple to score; interpretation allows for both norm-referenced and interchild comparisons across each of the six scales. Scores are reported as standard scores (M = 100, SD = 15) or as T scores (M = 50, SD = 10) and can be graphically displayed for ease of interpretation.
Each MSCS subscale evidences very high reliability (a >.90); the Total scale score reliability exceeds .97 for the total sample. The MSCS correlates very strongly with other measures of self-concept and self-esteem and has been shown empirically to identify clients who were previously identified as being low in self-concept. Several concurrent validity studies were conducted during the MSCS development and are presented in the Examiner's Manual
