In this article, the authors examine the psychometric properties of the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS), including evaluating the concurrent validity of the SRSS to predict results from the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD) when used to detect school children with externalizing or internalizing behavior concerns at three…

In implementing its Behavior Research Initiative, the U.S. Department of Education funded four Behavior Research Centers, each to test the efficacy of a separate intervention to improve the behavior of elementary school students with or at risk for serious behavior problems. The initiative also established the National Behavior Research…

In this article, we examine similarities and differences in the academic, social, and behavioral skills of high school students with emotional disturbances (ED) and learning disabilities (LD). Two groups of high school students with ED (n = 45) and LD (n = 49) were compared on nine measures in academic, behavioral, and social domains using…

Two studies evaluated effects of First Step to Success, a collaborative home and school early intervention program designed for kindergartners who show signs of emerging antisocial behavior. Two sets of 5-year-old male twins were the subjects of the 4-year studies. Exposure to the First Step program produced powerful behavior changes that were…

Review of the research literature on functional assessment-based interventions for students with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders identified key issues in the design of these studies. Issues included (1) an emphasis on descriptive analysis; (2) interventions employed and procedural integrity; (3) generalization and maintenance;…

This study examined the relationship between opportunities to respond (OTR) to academic requests and teacher praise in 20 classrooms for students with emotional and/or behavior disorders using time-window sequential analysis. Results suggest that: (1) a summary-level relationship represented by a significant positive correlation and (2) a…

In a study of French-speaking adolescents (n=547), five measures designed to examine psychological well being found that body image, self-esteem, and negative stressful life events mediate the relationship between gender and depressive symptoms during adolescence. Further analysis of a subsample who recently transitioned to high school also found…

This study examined the normative and construct equivalence of the teacher IOWA Conners Rating Scale (IOWA) with 3,998 elementary school children in an urban school district. Risk odds ratios were calculated by gender and ethnicity. Significant racial differences suggested that, although there is construct equivalence across racial groups, there…

This study examined the effects of a literary text-based course in emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) on changing preservice teachers' (N=32) attitudes toward children with EBD. Comparison with a control group instructed with a professional text-based approach found the experimental group had a significantly more positive change in attitudes…

This study compared 41 students with severe behavioral disorders (attending either day or residential programs) on language measures. No significant differences were found between groups; both groups showed receptive and expressive language deficits. However, teachers rated students in the day program higher on conversational skills. Also,…

Addresses methods of assessing social validity in interventions with individuals having behavioral disorders. Discusses three areas: (1) specific behavioral goals; (2) the social appropriateness of the procedures; and (3) the social importance of the outcomes. Issues of validity and utility are also raised. The paper concludes that application of…

This paper identifies factors possibly influencing long-term effectiveness of social skills training with students having emotional or behavioral disorders. These include: lack of a sound conceptual framework, questionable social validity of target skills, controversies surrounding the nature of social skills deficits, imprecise assessment…

Addresses the use of functional assessment in making treatment decisions with students having emotional/behavioral disorders. Discussion covers indirect and direct measures of the relationship between the target behavior and variables maintaining the behavior. Strategies for selecting and verifying hypothesis-driven treatment decisions are…

This study surveyed 12 journals in the field of emotional and behavior disorders to explore trends in five dimensions of research: (1) subject characteristics; (2) settings; (3)research design; (4) dependent variables; and (5) independent variables (interventions). Negligible trends were found and few studies reported interventions that were…

This study conducted item reduction analyses on two measures of job-related social behavior for adolescents and young adults with emotional/behavioral disorders (Scale of Job-Related Social Skill Knowledge and Scale of Job-Related Social Skill Performance). The shortened measures contained 40 and 94 items, respectively. Reliability was…