A brief version of the Scale of Emotional Development - Short

Abstract

Background: The Scale of Emotional Development - Short (SED-S) captures the level of emotional development in persons with a disorder of intellectual development (DID) with 200 items on five developmental levels. The study aims to develop a brief version of the SED-S.

Methods: Based on item analysis (proportions, χ² -test, Spearman's ρ and corrected item-total correlation), a brief version of the SED-S was developed in a sample of 224 adults with a DID (n₁ ) and validated in a second independent matched sample (n₂ = 223).

Results: Item reliability ranged per item set from Cronbach's α = 0.835 to 0.924. Weighted kappa resulted in κ_ω = 0.743 (P < 0.001, 95% confidence interval = 0.690-0.802). Overall agreement of the brief version with the original SED-S was P_O = 0.7. The brief version of the SED-S showed weaknesses in distinguishing level 2 from the adjacent levels.

Conclusions: The brief version of the SED-S showed good reliability and moderate to good validity results. Items of phase 2 and, to some degree, of phase 5 should be revised to further improve the psychometric properties of the scale.

Keywords: adults; assessment; disorders of intellectual development; emotional development; validity.