The paper offers a brief history of adaptive behavior measurement; the concept of adaptation was first introduced by Herber in 1959. An Adaptive Behavior Scale (ABS) sponsored by the American Association on Mental Deficiency (AAMD) was applied to schools--the Public School Version (PSV)--about 10 years ago, the first of many such measures. To investigate research conducted in the area of adaptive behavior measurement over the past decade, six major journals (Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Review, Exceptional Children, American Journal of Mental Deficiency, and Mental Retardation) were reviewed to determine trends. Specific trends were noted for individual journals as well as across journals. Trends included efforts to develop new scales as well as to shorten already existing scales. It was found that the research tends to address measurement and use of adaptive behavior information while ignoring examination of the conceptual nature of adaptive behavior. (CL)