While noncompliance is a concerning challenging behavior and commonly reported by educators, its measurement is likely to be invalid and inaccurate given the subjectivity of the operational definition. Engagement is offered as a more valid, accurate measurement that may provide data regarding the amount of instruction accessed by the student. In…

Researchers, theorists, and practitioners have expressed a renewed interest in the longitudinal dynamics of personality characteristics in adulthood, including organic life span trajectories and their amenability to volitional change. However, this research has apparently not yet expanded to include the Dark Triad (psychopathy, narcissism,…

In this retrospective commentary on "Acceptability of Behavioral Interventions Used in Classrooms: The Influence of Amount of Teacher Time, Severity of Behavior Problem, and Type of Intervention," I first examine the concept of social validity and related measurement challenges per Wolf's concerns about consumers' subjective reactions to…

The "Parenting Stress Index, Fourth Edition" (PSI-4) is a 120-item measure used to explore parental stress levels considering a parent's relationship with one of his or her children between the ages of 1 month and 12 years. The main purpose of the test is to define these stress levels and from where they originate in order to identify…

The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II Edition 2005 (Vineland-II) is useful in assessing abilities in autism spectrum disorder, where an accurate assessment of intelligence using standardized tools is difficult both due to the unique social and communication difficulties that these children present with and the behavioral issues that occur as…

A screening tool (in Chinese) for maladaptive internet use was developed in two stages. Thirty-five factors were first extracted from data obtained from 378 adolescents with a 179-item questionnaire. Nine higher-order factors were then obtained from 35 factors. A 26-item screen that measures both endogenous and exogenous factors was constructed on…

Students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit chronic behavior difficulties that deleteriously impact their academic and social functioning in school settings. These difficulties not only impair student performance, but also present significant challenges to teachers, school psychologists, and other school professionals…

Family members and educational teams frequently participate in planning, implementing, and evaluating programs for young children with disabilities and those at risk for academic and behavior difficulties. Decision making should incorporate an integration of best available research evidence along with practitioners' and families' beliefs and…

Positive behavior support (PBS) emerged in the mid-1980s as an approach for understanding and addressing problem behaviors. PBS was derived primarily from applied behavior analysis (ABA). Over time, however, PBS research and practice has incorporated evaluative methods, assessment and intervention procedures, and conceptual perspectives associated…

This article describes the journey toward evidence-based transport and implementation in usual care settings of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) for youth with drug abuse and behavioral problems (Henggeler, Schoenwald, Borduin, Rowland, & Cunningham, 1998). Research and experience informing the design of the MST transport strategy, progress in…

The purpose of this article is to explain how a means/ends test can be adapted for the school environment. Public school officials can use a means/ends test to document an analysis of whether dress-code policies will be effective in diminishing risks to the health, safety, or morality of the school population. Elements of policy evaluation--ends,…

With the recent increase in the use of functional behavior assessment (FBA) in school settings, there has been an emphasis in practice on the development and use of effective, efficient methods of conducting FBAs, particularly indirect assessment tools such as interviews. There are both benefits and drawbacks to these tools, and their technical…

This paper describes the development of the interRAI-Intellectual Disability (interRAI ID), a comprehensive instrument that assesses all key domains of interest to service providers relative to a person with an intellectual disability (ID). The authors report on the reliability and validity of embedded scales for cognition, self-care, aggression,…

This study determined psychometric properties of the Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale (PEDS) with an ethnically diverse sample of 383 children 2 to 7 years of age exposed to interpersonal violence and participating in a community-based intervention. Means and alpha coefficients for the total scale and 3 subscales fell within previously reported…

The Behavior Evaluation Scale-2 was designed to identify students in grades K-12 with behavior disorders/emotional disturbance. It measures five dimensions: learning problems, interpersonal difficulties, inappropriate behavior, unhappiness/depression, and physical symptoms/fears. This paper describes the instrument's administration, summation of…