Criteria and Indicators for Assessing the Social-Emotional Competencies of Junior High School Students: A Qualitative Grounded Theory Study

Abstract

This study aimed to identify and explain the criteria, subcategories, and behavioral indicators for assessing the social-emotional competencies of junior high school students from the perspective of education specialists in Zahedan. This applied qualitative study was conducted using a constructivist grounded theory approach. The participants were 17 education specialists working in boys’ and girls’ junior high schools in Zahedan. Participants were initially selected through purposive sampling, followed by theoretical sampling, and recruitment continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected through in-depth, individual, unstructured interviews and analyzed concurrently with data collection using the constant comparative method. The analytical process involved initial, focused, and theoretical coding. MAXQDA software was used to organize and manage the qualitative data. The rigor and trustworthiness of the findings were established through credibility, confirmability, dependability, and transferability procedures. The analysis yielded 148 new codes and ultimately resulted in six main categories, 15 subcategories, and 31 objective and observable behavioral indicators. The six main categories were self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision-making, and value-cultural orientation. Theoretical analysis further demonstrated that value-cultural orientation did not function merely as a parallel dimension alongside the other competencies. Instead, it emerged as an overarching and meaning-giving framework that guided the other five functional dimensions and situated social-emotional behaviors within the ethical values, cultural identity, and normative expectations of Iranian society. The extracted six-dimensional framework indicates that the assessment of social-emotional competencies among junior high school students should incorporate both broadly recognized functional competencies and culturally grounded value-related dimensions. This framework can provide a context-sensitive foundation for developing indigenous observation-based assessment scales, formative assessment checklists, and educational and counseling interventions appropriate to the developmental and cultural characteristics of Iranian adolescents.