Although the construct of social maladjustment has been used for the last six decades, relatively little research has addressed secular trends in socially maladjusted behaviors over time, and even fewer studies have addressed trends for students identified with emotional disturbance (ED). The purpose of this study was to use two U.S. nationally…

Students with emotional or behavioral disorders (E/BD) are characterized by academic deficits and classroom behavioral problems. The relationship between problem behavior and academic difficulties is complex, and some researchers have hypothesized that the classroom behavior problems of students with E/BD are responses to aversive stimuli, namely…

We compared threats of violence made by K-12 students in special education (120 cases) or general education (136 cases) in schools that were implementing threat assessment guidelines for managing student threats of violence (Cornell, Sheras, Kaplan, McConville, Posey, Levy-Elkon, et al., 2004; Cornell & Sheras, in press). Students in special…

Frequently, students with emotional and behavior disorders (EBD) exhibit academic underachievement combined with high levels of externalizing behaviors and resistance to instructional efforts. Regardless of the present reading initiatives, research focusing on interventions for teaching reading to students with EBD continues to be limited. This…

Social skills training has been recommended as an intervention for students having difficulty establishing meaningful social relationships with peers and teachers in school settings. Several meta-analyses of the relevant literature have shown weak to moderate effects, whereas other syntheses have shown somewhat larger effects. The meta-analyses…

The authors examined school discipline problems in relation to academic and interpersonal characteristics of students in a middle school of a rural low-income community. The sample comprised 259 students (83 boys, 176 girls)--all of whom were African American--and reflected the community's public school attendance. School records were examined,…

This article describes a replication of the "First Step to Success" program (Walker, Stiller, Severson, & Golly, 1998) with at-risk students in the first and second grade to determine program effectiveness in decreasing inappropriate behaviors and increasing academic engagement time. This expands the "First Step to…