SENA is an assessment tool designed to identify disorders and difficulties that occur at various stages of development, from age 3 up to adulthood. The tool has been developed to address the challenges most commonly encountered at each stage of development. It allows for the assessment of a child's psychosocial functioning from three perspectives: the child themselves, the parent, and the teacher.
The tool was created by a team of over 300 experts specializing in different areas of assessment and various types of child and adolescent psychopathology.
SENA is a tool with a very broad scope; it enables the assessment of a wide range of internalizing and externalizing problems (depression, anxiety, social anxiety, hyperactivity and impulsivity, substance use, eating disorders, learning difficulties, etc.), contextual problems (family issues, school difficulties, peer relationship problems), as well as areas of vulnerability (emotional instability, social withdrawal, behavioral rigidity, etc.) and personal resources (self-esteem, social competence and social integration, emotional intelligence).
STRUCTURE OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Validity scales
- Inconsistency Index
- Positive Impression
- Negative Impression
2. Scales assessing experienced difficulties
Internalizing problems (symptoms primarily expressed on an emotional level):
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Social Anxiety
- Somatic Symptoms
- Post-traumatic Symptoms
- Obsessions-Compulsions
Externalizing problems (symptoms primarily expressed at the behavioral level):
- Attention Problems
- Hyperactivity-Impulsivity
- Problems with Anger Control
- Aggression
- Defiance
- Antisocial Behaviors
Other specific problems:
- Substance Use
- Eating Disorders
- Developmental Delay
- Learning Difficulties
- Schizotypy
- Atypical Behaviors
Problems of the social milieu:
- Family Problems
- School Problems
- Problems with Peers
3. Scales assessing areas of vulnerabilities
These scales measure aspects of functioning that are not in themselves symptoms of a disorder or clinical problem but may act as risk factors and contribute to the development or maintenance of clinical issues.
- Emotional Instability
- Behavioral Rigidity
- Social Withdrawal
- Attachment Difficulties
- Sensation Seeking
4. Scales assessing personal resources
These scales measure psychological variables that may serve as preventive factors, protecting against the development of a disorder, reducing the impact of a disorder on the child’s functioning, or neutralizing the negative effects of the environment.
- Self-esteem
- Social Competence and Social Integration
- Emotional Intelligence
- Learning Commitment
- Awareness of Experienced Difficulties
SENA also allows for the calculation of composite indices, such as:
- Experienced Difficulties Index
- Emotional Problems Index
- Behavioral Problems Index
- Contextual Problems Index
- Difficulties in Executive Functioning Index
- Personal Resources Index
Additionally, the critical items included in SENA allow for the detection of situations such as bullying at school, difficulties in the family environment, risk of suicide attempts, risk of aggression, and the potential for harming others.
Materials:
- Complete set (3 volumes of the manual, 27 types of forms, 10 copies of each)
- Manual 1: Conducting the assessment, calculating results, interpretation
- Manual 2: Theoretical foundations, history of the tool, and psychometric properties
- Manual 3: Keys and norms
- Questionnaire forms – version for parents (aged 3–6) (10 copies)
- Questionnaire forms – version for parents (aged 7–12) (10 copies)
- Questionnaire forms – version for parents (aged 13–17) (10 copies)
- Questionnaire forms – version for teachers (aged 3–6) (10 copies)
- Questionnaire forms – version for teachers (aged 7–12) (10 copies)
- Questionnaire forms – version for teachers (aged 13–17) (10 copies)
- Questionnaire forms – self-report version (aged 7–8) (10 copies)
- Questionnaire forms – self-report version (aged 9–12) (10 copies)
- Questionnaire forms – self-report version (aged 13–17) (10 copies)
- Scoring forms – version for parents (aged 3–6) (10 copies)
- Scoring forms – version for parents (aged 7–12) (10 copies)
- Scoring forms – version for parents (aged 13–17) (10 copies)
- Scoring forms – version for teachers (aged 3–6) (10 copies)
- Scoring forms – version for teachers (aged 7–12) (10 copies)
- Scoring forms – version for teachers (aged 13–17) (10 copies)
- Scoring forms – self-report version (aged 7–8) (10 copies)
- Scoring forms – self-report version (aged 9–12) (10 copies)
- Scoring forms – self-report version (aged 13–17) (10 copies)
- Profile forms – version for parents (aged 3–6) (10 copies)
- Profile forms – version for parents (aged 7–12) (10 copies)
- Profile forms – version for parents (aged 13–17) (10 copies)
- Profile forms – version for teachers (aged 3–6) (10 copies)
- Profile forms – version for teachers (aged 7–12) (10 copies)
- Profile forms – version for teachers (aged 13–17) (10 copies)
- Profile forms – self-report version (aged 7–8) (10 copies)
- Profile forms – self-report version (aged 9–12) (10 copies)
- Profile forms – self-report version (aged 13–17) (10 copies)
The range of issues addressed by the SENA system is very broad, making it an effective and highly useful tool for various purposes, including identifying problems in an educational context, as part of preliminary assessment in a broader clinical diagnostic process, in evaluations for court-appointed expert opinions, or in comprehensive assessments of the severity of difficulties conducted for research projects.
When to use the SENA System?
- When a child or adolescent is experiencing various problems, and it is difficult to determine the direction of diagnostic proceedings.
- When the results from previously used questionnaires are atypical and suggest other underlying issues (e.g., ASRS, Conners 3, CDI 2 questionnaires).
- In differential diagnosis (e.g., distinguishing between depressive and anxiety disorders).
- After diagnosing a specific disorder, when there is a need to better understand the child's functioning. Using SENA ensures that comorbid disorders, which are important for providing appropriate help, are not overlooked. It also helps identify the child’s strengths.
- In planning and evaluating the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Reliability
The reliability of the SENA scales and indicators is good to excellent:
- High or very high internal consistency
The medians for internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for the indices ranged from 0.85 to 0.96, and for the scales from 0.77 to 0.91.
- High or very high stability
The medians for stability (Pearson's r) for the indices ranged from 0.78 to 0.96, and for the scales from 0.82 to 0.94.
- Quite high agreement between two raters assessing the same child
The medians for the correlation (Pearson's r) for the parent version were: indices from 0.72 to 0.79, scales from 0.70 to 0.72; for the teacher version: indices from 0.67 to 0.75, scales from 0.62 to 0.72.
Validity
Documented by means of factor analyses, the test-by-test method (in Polish studies, correlations with corresponding scales from the Conners 3, CDI 2, ASRS questionnaires, etc.), comparisons of clinical samples (children diagnosed with ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and mood disorders) with samples from the general population. It has been confirmed that in the various clinical groups specific profiles of SENA scores corresponding to each disorder are obtained.
Norms
T-scores and percentile scores.
Separate for genders and combined; with age groups within each version.
For each version norms developed based on a quota sample, using a total of 3,235 questionnaires:
- Parent version for ages 3–6 years N = 323, Parent version for ages 7–12 years N = 489, Parent version for ages 13–17 years N = 392;
- Teacher version for ages 3–6 years N = 313, Teacher version for ages 7–12 years N = 484, Teacher version for ages 13–17 years N = 363;
- Self-report version for ages 7–8 years N = 165, Self-report version for ages 9–12 years N = 320, Self-report version for ages 13–17 years N = 386.
Uprawnienia do zakupu i stosowania danego testu zależą od jego kategorii, wyznaczonej zgodnie z kategoryzacją Komisji do Spraw Testów Psychologicznych działającej z ramienia Polskiego Towarzystwa Psychologicznego.
SENA jest narzędziem kategorii C.
C – testy wyłącznie dla psychologów
Wymagane kwalifikacje:
- Ukończone studia magisterskie z psychologii – wymagane przedłożenie kopii dyplomu
- Osoby, które mają tytuł doktora psychologii, a nie ukończyły studiów psychologicznych, mogą kupować testy wyłącznie do celów naukowych – wymagany dyplom doktorski wraz z oświadczeniem informującym, że test będzie stosowany tylko do celów naukowych.
