The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI)

Social, Emotional, and Behavioral skills (SEB skills) are capacities that people use to maintain their social relationships, regulate their emotions, manage their goals, and learn from experience. There are many specific SEB skills, known as skill facets. Most of these facets can be organized into five major skill domains: Self-Management, Social Engagement, Cooperation, Emotional Resilience, and Innovation Skills.

The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI) is a comprehensive, reliable, valid, and efficient measure of SEB skills. It assesses 32 specific skill facets nested within the five major skill domains listed above. The BESSI uses a skill inventory format. Each BESSI item describes a specific, skill-relevant behavior, and the user rates how well they (or a target person, if they are rating someone else) can perform that behavior.

The BESSI is freely available for non-commercial purposes, such as scientific research, program evaluation, and personal use. To download the BESSI forms and instructions, and learn more about the measure, visit SEBskills.com

Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2022). An integrative framework for conceptualizing and assessing social, emotional, and behavioral skills: The BESSI. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123, 192-222. PDF