Translation and cultural adaptation of the Session Evaluation Questionnaire to Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

Evaluations of psychotherapy efficacy and of differences on efficacy between different types of psychotherapy are of great scientific and social relevance. Criteria for the evaluation of the psychotherapeutic processes usually include, besides results, measures related to the efficiency, cost and the perception of the patient about the treatment. The Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) stands out as a measure developed to evaluate and compare the perception of client and therapist, independently, at the end of each session. The objective of the present study was to make a translation and cultural adaptation, for use in Brazil, of the most recent version of the SEQ. The translated version of SEQ was the fifth, which includes 21 items in a 7-point likert format, with choices between pairs of adjectives. The translation process was conducted in five steps: translation, synthesis, back-translation, proofreading and pre-testing. The final Portuguese version was applied in an independent sample of clients and therapists (N = 36) in order to perform an internal consistency analysis of the scale. The scale and its factors presented good levels of internal consistency which points to a good quality of this version, making it possible to compare to its versions in other languages.