Psychometric Properties of Teacher Report of Social-Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale in Preschoolers and Elementary School Children Patrícia Figueiredo 1,2 & Andreia Azeredo 1,2 & Ricardo Barroso 2,3 & Fernando Barbosa 1,2 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Research in psychology has evolved over the decades creating a movement of greater emphasis on the assessment of strengths and positive characteristics, rather than focusing on risk factors and the diagnosis of pathology. The Social-Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale (SEARS) is an instrument for assessing the children’s strengths, resilience and adaptability in daily life, presenting a form completed by teachers. This study presents the factorial structure of the Portuguese version of teacher-report of SEARS and examines its psychometric properties, namely internal consistency and convergent validity, with a sample of 235 children (116 boys and 119 girls) aged between 5 and 10 years (M = 7.51, SD = 1.63). The factorial structure suggested by Merrell et al. (2011) was tested through a Confirmatory Factor Analyzes, with 41 items making up four factors (responsibility, self-competence, self-regulation, and empathy). In general, our findings support a final structure of 40 items divided into four subscales and provides evidence on the psychometric quality of this instrument. Limitations and future research needs are discussed. Keywords SEARS . Social-emotional . Preschool children . Elementary school children Research in psychology has evolved over the decades creating a movement of greater emphasis on the assessment of strengths and positive characteristics, rather than focusing on risk factors or on the diagnosis of pathology (Garmezy, 1993; Kirby & Fraser, 1997; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Suldo & Shaffer, 2008). When applied to developmental psy- chology, this movement focuses on unique skills, resources, life experiences and talents to better meet the needs of children and their families (Jimerson et al., 2004; Tedeschi & Kilmer, 2005). Epstein and Sharma (1998) defined the strengths-based assessment as “the measurement of these emotional and be- havioral skills, competencies and characteristics that create a sense of personal fulfillment; contribute to satisfying relation- ships with family members, peers and adults; improve the ability to deal with adversity and stress; and promote their personal, social and academic development” (p. 3). Childhood is a key period during which children develop social-emotional competences that will affect their learning and well-being (Denham et al., 2012; Heo & Squires, 2012; Yates et al., 2008), due to their simultaneous cognitive and social changes, as well as the experience of transition from home to the school environment (Vecchiotti, 2003). These competences include characteristics such as empathy, inter- personal skills, emotional competence, self-concept (Merrell, 2011), which allow children to build close relationships with peers, understand emotions, thoughts, and needs of others (Gormley et al., 2011). Empathy, defined as an affective re- sponse appropriate or congruent with the situation of another person, allows children to assume the emotional experiences of others, which is important to decrease aggressive acts (Dadds et al., 2008). Conversely, children who do not develop proper social- emotional competences have greater academic failure, tenden- cy for delinquency, inability to identify and understand their own and others’ feelings, and difficulties in establishing rela- tionships with other (Bryan, 1994; Denham & Couchoud, 1991; Gagnon et al., 1995; Greenberg et al., 2001; Gresham, 1992; Haapasalo & Tremblay, 1994; Payton et al., 2008; Rubin & Clark, 1983). * Patrícia Figueiredo patriciacsfigueiredo@gmail.com 1 Laboratory of Neuropsychophysiology, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal 2 Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal 3 University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-020-09831-6