Abstract:
Early School Personality Questionnaire (ESPQ) is a personality test designed for children ages 6-8. It was developed using Raymond Cattell's factor analytic techniques and may be used to diagnose emotional and conduct disorders, and provide information to teachers about emotional factors that affect classroom performance for individual students. The test may be administered in groups and is made up of 160 multiple choice questions with two response options each that ask the child to identify what his response would be in various situations, specify preferences for leisure activities, and describe his emotional responses. The resulting personality profile is broken down into the following thirteen scales: Reserved vs. Warmhearted; Dull vs. Bright; Affected by Feelings vs. Emotionally Stable; Undemonstrative vs. Excitable; Obedient vs. Dominant; Sober vs. Enthusiastic; Disregards Rules vs. Conscientious; Shy vs. Venturesome; Tough-minded vs. Tender minded; Vigorous vs. Doubting; Forthright vs. Shrewd; Self-assured vs. Guilt-prone; and Relaxed vs. Tense. Scoring is done using a stencil that is placed over the student answer sheet. Raw scores are converted to normalized sten scores and percentiles, and separate norm tables are provided for each year of age and for both sexes since age and sex trends appear in most factors. Finally, scores on the thirteen factors are collapsed into four second-order factors: Extraversion, Anxiety, Tough Poise, and Independence. The validity of this instrument has been established through factor analysis and norms were established on a sample of over 1600 children. The ESPQ and its administration instructions have been translated into Spanish.