Identifying student strengths is central to transition planning. However, school personnel use few assessments that operationalize behavioral and emotional strengths, and the psychometric functioning of those measures have not been established with transition-age students. In this two-part study, we used a national sample of transition-age…

The purpose of this article is to provide a qualitative review of the published research on the Scales for Assessing Emotional Disturbance-3: Screener noting the psychometric properties and overall findings. Results from 10 studies were reviewed and summarized. Across the studies, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and inter-rater…

Child assessment practices have undergone, and are continuing to undergo, significant changes. Among the most prominent changes is the movement toward measuring child well-being, in general, and emotional and behavioral strengths, in particular. The Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS) is a strength-based instrument which is widely used in…

This article describes the Emotional and Behavioral Screener, a brief universal screening procedure designed to help identify students whose emotional and behavioral functioning puts them at risk for future serious problems, including identification in the emotional disturbance category. Development of the screener drew on items and normative…

In previous research the Finnish version of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-2 (Epstein, 2004) has demonstrated adequate internal consistency and reliability. The purpose of the present study was to examine the convergent validity of the Finnish BERS-2 by comparing it with the Finnish version of the Strengths and Difficulties…

The Preschool Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (PreBERS) is an assessment of emotional and behavioral strengths in preschoolers with well-established reliability and validity for educational and clinical application in children with and without disabilities. The present study provides further evidence of psychometric rigor for items and…

The Emotional and Behavioral Screener (EBS) is a universal screening instrument designed to identify students whose excessive problem behaviors put them at risk of the education disability category of emotional disturbance (ED). This article reports findings from three studies that address the reliability and validity of the EBS. Studies 1 and 2…

Three studies are reported addressing the test-retest reliability and convergent validity of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-Second Edition (BERS-2): Parent Rating Scale (PRS). In the first study, test-retest reliability was investigated over a one-week period to determine the stability of the BERS-2 PRS over time. Reliability…

Two studies on young children are reported that address the psychometric characteristics of the Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance (SAED). Results from the studies indicate that the SAED is a reliable and valid instrument for identifying young children who may qualify for the federal definition of emotional disturbance. (Contains…

This paper reports on the development of a scale to identify a child's emotional and behavioral skills, competencies, and characteristics, the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: A Strength-Based Approach to Assessment (BERS). The BERS is a 52-item scale that identifies strengths in five areas: interpersonal strengths, family involvement,…

This article provides an overview of strength-based assessment of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders and discusses the development and psychometric characteristics of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS). The BERS is a norm-referenced, standardized test that assesses the strengths of children and…

This study reports on the standardization of the Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance. Data collected on 2,266 typical students (ages 5- 18) and 1,371 students with emotional disturbances led to the identification of six behavioral problem factors that correspond to the federal definition of emotional disturbance and were highly internally…

This study examined the extent to which the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: Parent Rating Scale (BERS: PRS) constitutes a reliable measure for assessing strengths of Hispanic children and youth. Major conceptual and theoretical issues with respect to cross-cultural assessment are presented. Further, emotional and behavioral disorders are…

Objective: This article reports findings of three studies addressing convergent validity and test-retest reliability of the Youth Rating Scale of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-Second Edition (BERS-2). Method: Pearson product-moment correlations were used in all three studies, the first two addressing convergent validity and the third…