Fiabilité et validité de l'Échelle de compréhension sociale des enfants.

Ce manuscrit rapporte les résultats de trois études sur la fiabilité et la validité de l'Échelle de compréhension sociale des enfants (ÉCSE), une adaptation française du questionnaire parental Children's Social Understanding Scale développé par Tahiroglu et al. (2014). Dans une première étude administrée aux parents de 382 jeunes enfants, l'ÉCSE démontre dans sa fiabilité interne et ses corrélations avec d'autres construits des propriétés similaires à la version originale anglaise de l'échelle. Une deuxième étude (n = 63) démontre la fiabilité test-retest de l'échelle alors qu'une troisième étude (n = 68) confirme que les réponses parentales sur l'ÉCSE corrèlent positivement avec les scores des enfants sur une échelle comportementale de théorie de l'esprit. Ces données confirment la fiabilité et la validité de l'ÉCSE, offrant un nouvel outil aux chercheurs travaillant avec des populations d'enfants francophones. This manuscript presents data on the reliability and validity of a French translation of the Children's Social Understanding Scale (CSUS; Tahiroglu et al., 2014), a parent-report scale assessing theory of mind in young children. In a first study, parents of 382 typically developing children (34–82 months; M = 55 months; 193 males) completed an online questionnaire (215 in English and 167 in French) including the CSUS or its French translation, l'Échelle de compréhension sociale des enfants (ÉCSE), as well as subscales of the short-form Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Putnam & Rothbart, 2006) and demographic questions. Internal consistency of the CSUS/ÉCSE was high and similar between French and original English versions (French: long form α =.929, ρ =.933, n = 99, short form α =.896, ρ =.901, n = 128; English: long form α =.935, ρ =.936, n = 100, short form α =.860, ρ =.869, n = 146). Correlations between the mean CSUS/ÉCSE score and children's age in months were significantly positive and similar across languages, English: r =.478, P <.001, French: r =.569, P <.001, difference: Z = 1.21, P =.226, ns. In both languages, the CSUS/ÉCSE correlated positively with CBQ subscales of attention (English: r (205) =.298, P <.001; French: r (165) =.353, P <.001) and inhibition (English: r (205) =.538, P <.001; French: r (165) =.421, P <.001). A confirmatory factor analysis constraining variances and covariances of the six CSUS/ÉCSE subscales to be equal between languages yielded a non-significant Chi², χ ²(33) = 6.204, ns. In a second study, French-speaking parents completed the ÉCSE twice one week apart for 63 children (M child age: 50 months; 31 females). Test-retest reliability was high, r =.967. In a third study, 68 children (33–78 months; M = 54 months; 30 males) were administered the four easiest tasks of a widely used behavioral theory of mind scale (Wellman & Liu, 2004) and their French-speaking parents completed the ÉCSE. Behavioral theory of mind from the Wellman & Liu (2004) scale and parent-report theory of mind from the ÉCSE were positively correlated (long form: r (68) =.350, P =.003; short form: r (68) =.364, P =.002), and these correlations held even after controlling for age (long form: r =.281, P =.021; short form: r (68) =.242, P =.049). Together, these findings support the reliability and validity of the French-language ÉCSE. Translated items are provided in appendix for use by researchers working with francophone populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]