The Geneva Scale of Socio-emotional Behavior Change (ECCSEG): Validation with patients suffering from cranio-cerebral trauma

Emotional and behavioral problems following traumatic brain in-jury (TBI) are frequent and often associated with family, social and professional difficulties. They constitute an important factor in the assessment and treatment of persons with TBI. However, assess-ment tools for socio-emotional behavior problems after TBI present numerous shortcomings on the methodological, theoretical and statistical levels. In that context, the objective of this research was to develop and validate à new questionnaire in French based on solid theoretical and methodological criteria: L'Échelle des changements de comportements socio-émotionnels de Genève (ECCSEG; Geneva Scale of Socio-emotional Behavior Change, GSSEBC). This 15-item questionnaire was administered to 117 relatives of people who had experienced TBI. Exploratory factor analysis shows à three-factor structure, with each factor presenting internal consistency from satisfactory to high: externalized, moti-vational and internalized problems. As well, the results revealed not only à significant increase in scores for each of the three factors in relation to the pre-trauma condition but also significant links between those factors and different impulsivity dimensions, demonstrating good external validity of the scale. Finally, the three ECCSEG factors are significantly associated with the subjective bur-den of relatives and with psycho-social repercussions, evidence of good predictive validity. These results indicate that the ECCSEG constitutes à valid and relevant tool in French for the assessment of socio-emotional problems that could be used in à clinical or research setting for people with TBI.