A brief version of the Scale of Emotional Development - Short.

Abstract

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