Recent statistics suggest that student externalizing behaviors are increasing in Western and Asian countries; however, there is a paucity of research on teachers' perspectives of these behaviors in Middle Eastern countries. A mixed-methods research design was used to investigate Kuwaiti public elementary and middle school teachers' perceptions of…

The purpose of the study was to determine how teachers are implementing behavior prevention and intervention. The general problem in this qualitative case study was the high office referral rates due to discipline. The research collection was conducted in an elementary school setting within the Los Angeles Unified School District. A total of seven…

The following study examined the association between race, ethnicity, referral source, and reasons for attrition from substance use treatment in a sample of 72,643 discharges of adolescent youth in the United States from 2014 to 2016. Black and Hispanic adolescents were more likely to be discharged due to incarceration and termination by the…

Schools continue to rely on disciplinary exclusions as a consequence for behavioral rule violations, despite evidence that removing students from instruction for discipline purposes is associated with poor behavioral, academic, and social outcomes. School-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) is one multitiered support…

Intellectual impairments in preschoolers have been widely studied. A regularity that emerges is that children's intellectual impairments have an important impact on later adjustments in life. However, few studies have looked at the intellectual profiles of young psychiatric outpatients. This study aimed to describe the intelligence profile of…

The rising prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) necessitates a greater understanding of the academic experience of diagnosed children. The present study investigates several predictors of teacher-reported academic competence among a sample of elementary school children. All children in the sample were referred for an ASD evaluation and…

School administrators are projected to implement behavior expectations and be knowledgeable of various strategies that are effective for all students including students in the exceptional student education programs. They are also anticipated to be effective in classroom management and behavior management schoolwide. Having unsuccessful behavior…

Children of color are disproportionately referred for discipline in schools and subsequently receive harsher punishments than their peers. Teachers' implicit bias has been identified as a possible source of these disparities, particularly for Black boys. However, teachers' social--emotional competence (SEC) may mitigate biased responses to Black…

School disciplinary practices affect student academic and life outcomes. Many schools have recently shifted towards the prevention of behavioral disorders rather than the punishment of such disorders, but disciplinary actions are still disproportionately meted out to Black students. We took advantage of a natural experiment in a large school…

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other researchers, the prevalence of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses among school-aged children has gained the attention of researchers. Due to the large amount of time children spend in the school context, researchers have found that teachers play a…

Teachers' attributions of student behavior are associated with the decisions they make about how to respond to behavior problems and support their students. This exploratory study investigates teachers' attributions of student externalizing behavior, how attributions vary as a function of teacher and school characteristics, and the association of…

The problem investigated is that high discipline referrals in schools serving at-risk high school students often lead to student attrition and lack of academic success. A qualitative methodology with a narrative research design was employed/utilized to investigate the impact of high discipline referring in schools in Alabama, including the…

Identifying youth with mental health concerns and connecting them to effective intervention is important because poor mental health is related to lower educational achievements, substance abuse, violence, compromised health, and reduced life satisfaction. This study examined the ability of teachers (n = 153) to accurately identify mental health…

Threat-assessment procedures are advanced for their utility in reducing racial disparities in punitive and exclusionary school discipline outcomes. Generally unexamined, however, is bias in who gets referred for school-based threat assessment and under what circumstances. Cultural-competence considerations hold promise for addressing sources of…

The urban classroom environment presents unique challenges related to student behavior and classroom management. This dissertation investigates the effectiveness of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) as a proactive approach to addressing these challenges. The study examines the impact of PBIS implementation in urban schools,…