Self-Perception of Competence by Iranian Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to study the responses of Iranian elementary school children to the Perceived Competence Scale for Children. The items were translated with minor changes in wording to make them more comprehensible to Iranian children. The scale was administered to 199 children ages 9 to 11 in Grades 4 to 5 in four elementary schools from two socioeconomically different districts in Shiraz. Analysis showed satisfactory internal reliability. Intercorrelations among 28 items were factor analyzed using principal component analysis followed by both varimax and oblimin rotations. Three factors emerged with both rotations: Cognitive Competence, Social Competence, and Physical Competence. Sex differences were not significant for factor scores except that girls rated themselves as significantly more socially competent than boys did.