Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young

Children
Harter, S. and Pike, R.
1984

Description of Measure
Purpose
To obtain self-reported feelings of cognitive and physical competence and social
acceptance from children aged 4 to 7 years.

Conceptual Organization
The 24-item instrument is made up of four a priori subscales comprised of six items
each: Cognitive Competence, Physical Competence, Peer Acceptance, and Maternal Acceptance.
Separate versions were developed for two age groupings: Preschool Kindergarten (Form PK),
and First Second Grade. Because the scale is administered to young children, the items and
response sets are pictorial. Factor analysis for both age groups has revealed that all items load on
two major factors: General Competence and Social Acceptance (Harter & Pike, 1984). The four
separate subscales were retained because the authors felt that they could provide useful
information about individual children; e.g., for some children the items in maternal and peer
acceptance may not cluster together.

Item Origin/Selection Process

The Pictorial Scales of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance were devised as a
downward extension of the Perceived Competence Scale for Children developed for children and
adolescents 8 to 18 years old (Harter, 1983). Whereas older children are able to think of
themselves in terms of trait labels or more generalized descriptions (e.g., smart, popular),
younger childrens self-judgements are much more concrete. Therefore, items were developed to
correspond to specific skills that connote competence and social acceptance for these age groups.
The two versions were necessitated by the fact that childrens skills and activities change quite a
bit over the four year age span from preschool to second grade.

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Materials
Administration booklets, interview forms, score sheets, and procedural manuals are
available from the publisher (Harter & Pike, 1983). Also see Harter and Pike (1984).

Time Required
10-15 minutes

Administration Method
Two illustrations are presented for each item, typically, a child who is very good at the
task(s) depicted and a child who is not very good at the task(s). The child is read two brief
statements, one positive and one negative, for each of the pictures (e.g., this childs mom takes
him places he likes to go, and this childs mom does not take him places he likes to go). The
child is then asked to choose which of the children from the two statements is most like him or
her, the child depicting the positive statement or the child depicting the negative statement. After
the respondent identifies with one of the children, the interviewer asks whether s/he is a lot like
that child or a little like that child.

Training
Minimal. Interviewers should be familiar with the procedures manual.

Scoring
Score Types
Each item is scored on a 4-point scale, where 4 represents the highest degree of perceived
acceptance or competence. Subscale scores are computed by adding values of child responses,
and computing mean scores. Subscale totals range from 6 to 24. The subscales for both versions
are comprised of items as follows:
Cognitive Competence: Items 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, and 21
Physical Competence: Items 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, and 23
Peer Acceptance: Items 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, and 22
Maternal Acceptance: Items 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24

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Score Interpretation
Higher scores reflect a greater sense of competence or social acceptance.

Norms and/or Comparative Data

Harter and Pike (1984)
In their sample, the authors included an equal number of female and male preschoolers (n
= 90), kindergartners (n = 56), first graders (n = 65), and second graders (n = 44). Children were
predominantly White (96%) and middle-class. The means for the four subscales, displayed in
Table 1, indicate that children in this sample generally report feelings of high competence and
acceptance.

Table 1 about here

Studies of maltreated children

Vondra, Barnett, and Cicchetti (1989, 1990) have found that young, maltreated, school-
age children tend to inflate their self-report on this perceived competence measure. They
hypothesized that younger, maltreated children may be cognitively delayed relative to their
peers, and thus not as capable of making realistic self-appraisals.

Psychometric Support
Reliability
Alpha coefficients for the subscales for both age groups ranged from .53 for Physical
Competence in the Grades 1-2 sample to .83 for the Maternal Acceptance subscale in the
Preschool-Kindergarten sample (Harter & Pike, 1984). Even though children responded
consistently to these items, the narrow range of scores produces lower estimates of statistical
reliability (Harter & Pike, 1984). The authors also note that scores were skewed toward the
upper end of the scale, especially for the competence subscales.

Validity
Scores on various subscales are reported to discriminate between children predicted to
differ in each domain. For example, children new to a school setting reported lower peer
acceptance; children who had been held back a grade reported lower cognitive competence, and

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children who were preterm infants, with related delays in motor development, rated themselves
lower in the physical competence domain as was predicted. Correlations between teacher and
self-ratings were moderately weak, with highest agreement in the cognitive domain (r = .37, p <
.001), next highest in the physical domain (r = .30, p < .005) and negligible agreement in the
social acceptance domain (r = .06) (Harter & Pike, 1984).
Another study examining the construct validity and developmental appropriateness of
this scale for low-income urban children did not replicate Harter and Pikes findings of
meaningful constructs and concluded that this instrument is not developmentally appropriate for
preschool children (Fantuzzo, McDermott, Manz, Hampton, & Burdick, 1996).

LONGSCAN Use
Data Points
Age 6

Respondent
Child

Mnemonic and Version

PCSA: For first and second graders.
PCKA: For preschoolers and kindergarteners. The EA and MW sites used this form
because at the time of the Age 6 interview almost all subjects were either enrolled in preschool
or kindergarten, or cognitive testing placed them in the preschool-kindergarten developmental
range.

Rationale
Feelings of competence and acceptance are characteristics that have been associated with
high self-esteem and resilience in children.

Administration and Scoring Notes

The EA and MW sites administered the PK version of the instrument. Because the scales
of the two versions are comparable in terms of items and scoring, their results can be combined
with those of the other sites. The Cognitive items differ in content according to specific cognitive

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activities that would be appropriate for each age group. The Physical Competence, Peer
Acceptance, and Maternal Acceptance subscales each have four overlapping items.

Results
Subscale means and standard deviations are displayed in Table 2. The EA and MW sites
results for Form PK are presented separately. The scores obtained for these LONGSCAN
samples are virtually identical to those reported by Harter and Pike (1984) for their
predominantly White, middle class samples (See Table 1). The possibility that the children in our
samples have exaggerated self-perceptions, as suggested by the work of Vondra, Barnett, and
Cicchetti (1989, 1990), should be considered.
In our samples, Black children had more positive scores than the children in other racial
groups. Site variation was mostly negligible and may be attributable to slight variations in age
across the samples.

Table 2 about here

Reliability
Table 3 presents data on subscale internal consistency. The alpha coefficients are similar
to those reported by Harter and Pike (1984).

Validity
To investigate validity, each of the subscales was compared to standardized measures of
related constructs. No correlation was found between the Cognitive Competence subscale and
either the WPPSI Vocabulary and Block Design subscales or the teacher's report of Academic
Performance from the Teacher Report Form. No difference in mean scores on the Physical
Competence subscale was found for children whose health was described as Excellent/Good and
those whose health was described as Fair/Poor.

Table 3 about here

Harter and Pike found that their samples competence judgements were related to their
actual performance (Harter & Pike, 1984). To test the validity of the Social Competence domain,

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we correlated childrens scores with their total scores on the Loneliness and Social
Dissatisfaction self-report measure, with the mothers report of Social Problems on the CBCL,
and with the teachers report of Social Problems on the TRF. A significant association was found
between the childs self report of Social Competence and self-report of Loneliness and Social
Dissatisfaction (r = -.47, p < .0001), indicating that children gave consistent reports of their
feelings in the social arena. There was also a small inverse association between the childs self
report of Social Competence and the mothers report of Social Problems on the CBCL (r = -.09,
p < .05). The correlation between the Social Competence domain and the teachers report of
Social Problems was of approximately the same magnitude (-.07), though the relationship was
not significant. These latter two tests suggest that the childrens perceived competencies are not
strongly related to how external observers view them. While this does not necessarily indicate
lack of validity of the instrument for our population, these findings suggest that continued
monitoring of psychometric properties of this instrument is warranted.

Publisher Information
Susan Harter, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
University of Denver
2040 S. York Street
Denver, CO 80208

References and Bibliography

Fantuzzo, J. W., McDermott, P. A., Manz, P. H., Hampton, V. R., & Burdick, N. A.
(1996). The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance: Does it work with
low-income urban children? Child Development, 67, 1071-1084.

Harter, S. (1982). The perceived competence scale for children. Child Development, 53,
87-97.

Harter, S. (1983). Supplementary description of the Self-Perception Profile for Children:

Revision of the Perceived Competence Scale for Children. Unpublished manuscript, University
of Denver.

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 Harter, S. & Pike, R. (1983). Procedure Manual to Accompany The Pictorial Scale of
Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children. Denver, CO: University of
Denver.

Harter, S., & Pike, R. (1984). The pictorial scales of perceived competence and social
acceptance for young children. Child Development, 55, 1969-1982.

Vondra, J. I., Barnett, D., & Cicchetti, D. (1989). Perceived and actual competence
among maltreated and comparison school children. Development and Psychopathology, 1, 237-
255.

Vondra, J. I., Barnett, D., & Cicchetti, D. (1990). Self-concept, motivation, and
competence among preschoolers from maltreating and comparison families. Child Abuse &
Neglect, 14, 525-540.

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Table 1. Subscale Means and Standard Deviations for the Pictorial Scale of Perceived
Competence for Young Children
Cognitive Physical Peer Maternal
Competence Competence Acceptance Acceptance
M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)
Preschoolers/
3.7 (0.38) 3.6 (0.45) 3.5 (0.57) 3.4 (0.66)
Kindergartners
First & Second
3.3 (0.66) 3.5 (0.49) 3.3 (0.66) 3.0 (0.68)
Graders
Source. Harter and Pike (1984).
Note. Subjects were administered age-appropriate versions of the scale.

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Table 2. Mean Perceived Competence Scores by Race and Study Site. Age 6 Interview
Cognitive Physical Peer Maternal
Competence Competence Acceptance Acceptance
N M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)
Form PK
Total (EA, MW) 417 3.64 (0.41) 3.60 (0.43) 3.42 (0.59) 3.34 (0.65)
Race
White 30 3.64 (0.48) 3.44 (0.55) 3.34 (0.56) 3.14 (0.68)
Black 318 3.63 (0.41) 3.61 (0.42) 3.48 (0.56) 3.38 (0.64)
Hispanic 28 3.64 (0.33) 3.56 (0.41) 3.14 (0.69) 3.25 (0.66)
Multiracial 36 3.70 (0.34) 3.63 (0.49) 3.29 (0.65) 3.26 (0.70)
Other 5 3.67 (0.24) 3.57 (0.35) 2.77 (1.12) 3.03 (0.89)
Site
EA 230 3.66 (0.38) 3.60 (0.45) 3.48 (0.57) 3.40 (0.65)
MW 187 3.61 (0.43) 3.59 (0.42) 3.34 (0.62) 3.27 (0.64)

Form 1-2
Total (SO, SW, NW) 719 3.28 (0.66) 3.52 (0.49) 3.33 (0.66) 2.98 (0.68)
Race
White 264 3.15 (0.69) 3.41 (0.51) 3.20 (0.66) 2.86 (0.67)
Black 296 3.44 (0.57) 3.67 (0.38) 3.45 (0.61) 3.10 (0.66)
Hispanic 51 3.15 (0.74) 3.42 (0.66) 3.27 (0.73) 2.97 (0.64)
Multiracial 98 3.18 (0.69) 3.45 (0.53) 3.32 (0.68) 2.98 (0.69)
Other 10 3.40 (0.69) 3.53 (0.48) 3.45 (0.67) 2.97 (0.79)
Site
SO 216 3.52 (0.51) 3.62 (0.40) 3.39 (0.66) 3.00 (0.65)
SW 284 3.27 (0.65) 3.52 (0.50) 3.37 (0.62) 3.03 (0.65)
NW 219 3.04 (0.72) 3.43 (0.54) 3.22 (0.69) 2.90 (0.73)
Source. Based on data received at the LONGSCAN Coordinating Center through 8/24/01.

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Table 3. Cronbachs Alpha Coefficients of Perceived Competence Scores by Race and
Study Site. Age 6 Interview
Cognitive Physical Peer Maternal
Competence Competence Acceptance Acceptance

Form PK (EA, MW) .60 .59 .73 .78
Race
White .74 .61 .62 .71
Black .60 .57 .72 .78
Hispanic .32 .58 .75 .81
Multiracial .60 .73 .71 .81
Other -.54 .30 .90 .82
Site
EA .59 .65 .72 .80
MW .61 .51 .74 .75

Form 1-2 (SO, SW, NW) .78 .61 .78 .72

Race
White .78 .58 .73 .72
Black .74 .53 .74 .70
Hispanic .86 .79 .80 .65
Multiracial .77 .57 .74 .74
Other .84 .58 .86 .72
Site
SO .75 .51 .80 .70
SW .77 .61 .72 .69
NW .77 .64 .74 .76
Source. Based on data received at the LONGSCAN Coordinating Center through 8/24/01.

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