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Details
Purpose
Assesses positive social-emotional attributes of children and adolescents
Authors
Kenneth W. Merrell, PhD
Administration Formats
Additional Details
A Strengths-Based Tool to Evaluate Social–Emotional Assets, Resiliencies, and Competencies in Children and Adolescents
Focusing on a child’s strengths, the SEARS can be used with children and adolescents who exhibit a variety of clinical problems or who are at high risk for developing such problems.
The SEARS comprises a cross-informant system for measuring social-emotional competencies such as friendship skills, empathy, interpersonal skills, social support, problem solving, emotional competence, social maturity, self-concept, self-management, social independence, cognitive strategies, and resilience. Higher item, scale, and total scores are always indicative of perceptions of higher levels of social-emotional competence.
Features and benefits
- Includes separate assessment forms for children (ages 8 to 12 years or Grades 3 to 6) and for adolescents (ages 13 to 18 years or Grades 7 to 12), as well as teacher report forms and parent report forms. The forms may be used for any combination of student, parent, and teacher assessment.
- All forms measure common constructs (e.g., self-regulation, responsibility, social competence, empathy), but also include items designed to capture the unique perspective of the rater. Items are phrased as desirable positive characteristics.
Short forms
Separate short forms (12 items each) are also available and take approximately 5 minutes to complete each. SEARS short forms best reflect the global construct of social resiliency measured by the full-length rating forms and require very little time to administer. They are practical for repeated assessment (i.e., progress monitoring) or class- or school-wide screening of students.
Available in Spanish
SEARS Parent Forms, including the Rating Booklet, Summary/Profile Form, and Short Form, have all been translated into U.S. Spanish. This product uses English norms only.
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FAQs
What is a strength-based assessment?
A srength-based assessment, like the SEARS, seeks to identify characteristics of social, emotional, and behavioral functioning from the standpoint of positive attributes and assets. Strength-based assessment and the application of positive psychology do not seek to eliminate or replace the traditional focus on deficits, pathology, and mental illness. Rather, they seek to complement traditional approaches by ensuring that a focus on assets and strengths also is included. There is increasing evidence that a comprehensive understanding of child and adolescent behavior must take into account both wellness and pathology.
Why was the SEARS developed?
The SEARS assessment system is built on the principles of strength-based assessment. It is possible (and thought to be likely) that an exclusive emphasis on pathology in social-emotional assessment practices limits clinicians in their efforts to best serve children, adolescents, and their schools and families. The SEARS and was developed for this and additional reasons:
- Strength-based assessments are highly compatible with the positive psychology movement
- To promote more optimism and hope among professionals working with troubled children and families
- Can lead to empowerment of children and families to take responsibility for navigating their own life experiences
- To aid in the development of more intuitive interventions based on strengths
- Identifies strengths on which to build interventions
- The assessment items and results may be restated into positive intervention goals
- The assessment’s less stigmatizing nature
- Social validity with parents and teachers
My school conducts yearly screening for social emotional health. Can we use the SEARS for this?
Yes, schools may use the SEARS rating forms for screening. Some choose to administer the full-length forms (35 to 41 items) and others the 12-item short forms. The short forms measure the core constructs that appear on the longer forms, but they require very little time to administer and are thus very practical choices for use in repeated measurement assessment, such as in class-wide or school-wide screening.
Can I use the SEARS for progress monitoring?
SEARS short forms contain 12 items and may be used for monitoring progress and adjusting interventions for students on a frequent and ongoing basis. Use is ideal in a response to intervention (RTI) model. Allot about 5 minutes for completion. Child, adolescent, parent, and teacher versions are available.