Introduction

Social-emotional Skills (SES) refer to integral behaviors representing ade- quate management of emotions while achieving personal and social development. There are diverse instruments to assess SES on university students in general, but not on nursing students in particular.

Objective

To design an instrument to assess SES among nursing students and test its content validity.

Methodology

An instrumental study was carried out that included the revision phases of instruments to evaluate the SES: construction of the instrument; review and improvement of the instrument by experts; content validation by 16 experts using Aiken’s V relevance index; and pilot test of the instrument on 50 students and assess its reliability (Cronbach´s Alpha) and ease of comprehension.

Results

The instrument integrated 12 indicators (tolerance, collaborative work, adaptation to the environment, efficacious communication, empathy, decision making, creativity, interpersonal relationships, assertiveness, self-efficacy, resilience, and stress management). Expert judgment revealed a content validity of Aiken’s V > 0.90. An acceptable value of reliability (α= 0.786) and favorable opinion was obtained regarding the ease of comprehension of the instrument.

Discussion and Conclusion

The assessment of SES on nursing students is fundamental to improve and preserve their mental health, and foster their professional, personal, and social development. This is a reliable, first-of-its-kind, and content-validated instrument. Nevertheless, the analysis of its psychometric properties should be continued to keep improving its quality.