Abstract
Background
In people with intellectual disabilities, emotional development progresses more slowly or stagnates, which can result in challenging behaviours. The Scale of Emotional Development-Questionnaire was designed to chart people's own emotional development, providing insight into basic emotional needs and resilience, while reducing prejudice, enhancing self-awareness and improving emotional expression.
Methods
The questionnaire was completed by 134 participants with moderate to borderline intellectual disabilities. Reliability, validity, internal structure and item performance were analysed to identify areas for improvement.
Results
Preliminary analyses indicated the questionnaire captures key aspects of emotional development, with most items showing strong factor loadings (51.79%). However, multiple items may require refinement due to moderate loadings (30.00%), low loadings (18.21%), limited variance (3.93%) and negative-low correlations.
Conclusion
The Scale of Emotional Development-Questionnaire is a promising self-report interview of emotional development, complementing the proxy perspective of the Scale of Emotional Development-Short. The findings highlight areas for improvement and the need for further research post-revision.
In people with intellectual disabilities, emotional development progresses more slowly or stagnates, which can result in challenging behaviours. The Scale of Emotional Development-Questionnaire was designed to chart people's own emotional development, providing insight into basic emotional needs and resilience, while reducing prejudice, enhancing self-awareness and improving emotional expression.
Methods
The questionnaire was completed by 134 participants with moderate to borderline intellectual disabilities. Reliability, validity, internal structure and item performance were analysed to identify areas for improvement.
Results
Preliminary analyses indicated the questionnaire captures key aspects of emotional development, with most items showing strong factor loadings (51.79%). However, multiple items may require refinement due to moderate loadings (30.00%), low loadings (18.21%), limited variance (3.93%) and negative-low correlations.
Conclusion
The Scale of Emotional Development-Questionnaire is a promising self-report interview of emotional development, complementing the proxy perspective of the Scale of Emotional Development-Short. The findings highlight areas for improvement and the need for further research post-revision.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1020-1031 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | JIDR : Journal of Intellectual Disability Research |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| Early online date | 20 Aug 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2025 |
Funding
This research was funded by ZonMw Grant Number 60\u201063700\u201098\u2010420 (Academic Collaborative Center \u2018Affect\u2010us\u2019) and Bartim\u00E9us Grant Number P00768.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| ZonMw | P00768, 60‐63700‐98‐420 |