Assessment & Research

Brief report comparing the Scale of Emotional Development - Short (SED-S) with other scales for emotional development.

Sappok et al. (2023) · Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR 2023
★ The Verdict

Pick the SED-S when you want a short, reliable emotional-development snapshot that lines up with the SEO-Lukas.

✓ Read this if BCBAs who assess emotional development in adults with intellectual disability.
✗ Skip if Clinicians who only work with typically developing clients.

01Research in Context

01

What this study did

The team compared the SED-S to other emotional-development scales used with adults who have intellectual disability.

They wanted to see which older tool the SED-S lines up with best.

02

What they found

SED-S scores matched closest to the SEO-Lukas scale.

The scale also showed high internal consistency, meaning its items stick together well.

03

How this fits with other research

Sappok et al. (2016) built the first 200-item SED-S for adults; this new study checks how that tool stacks up against rivals.

Hong et al. (2021) already proved the SED-S works well in kids; now we know it holds up in adults too.

Kremkow et al. (2022) stretched the scale down to teens; together these papers show the SED-S can track emotional growth across the lifespan.

04

Why it matters

If you need one quick scale for emotional development in adults with ID, choose the SED-S. It talks the same language as the SEO-Lukas and you can trust its scores.

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Swap in the 20-item SED-S for your next adult assessment and compare the profile to any old SEO-Lukas scores on file.

02At a glance

Intervention
not applicable
Design
other
Sample size
186
Population
intellectual disability
Finding
positive
Magnitude
large

03Original abstract

BACKGROUND: Different instruments were devised for assessing emotional development (ED) level in persons with an intellectual disability (ID), that is, the Scale of Emotional Development - Short (SED-S), the Scheme for Appraisal of Emotional Development (SAED), the Scale for Emotional Development - Second Revision (SED-R2 ) and the Schaal voor Emotionele Ontwikkeling - Lukas (SEO-Lukas). The aim of this study was to compare the level of emotional functioning as assessed with the SED-S with the SAED, SED-R2 and SEO-Lukas. METHODS: Emotional development was measured in adults with ID with the SED-S (N = 186) and the SAED (n = 85), the SED-R2 (n = 50) and the SEO-Lukas (n = 51). Correlation analysis and Cohen's kappas were calculated between the SED-S and the three respective scales. Internal consistencies (Cronbach's alpha) of the four scales were determined. RESULTS: The SED-S results correlated most with the SEO-Lukas (γ = 1; кω = 0.936) followed by the SAED (γ = 0.809; кω = 0.343) and least by the SED-R2 (γ = 0.665; кω = 0.182). The stage of ED assessed with the SED-S was lower than the ED results measured with the SAED, but higher than with the SED-R2 and most similar to the SEO-Lukas. Cronbach's alphas were high, ranging from 0.853 to 0.975. CONCLUSIONS: Given the respective differences between the scales, the SED-S may equalise the results as compared with previous versions.

Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2023 · doi:10.1111/jir.13081