Universal screening for emotional and behavioral risk in schools facilitates early identification and intervention for students as part of multitiered systems of support. Early identification has the potential to mitigate adverse outcomes of emotional and behavioral disorders. The purpose of this study was to extend existing research on the…

Outcomes for students classified as emotionally disturbed (ED) are among the poorest for any disability group and include disturbingly low graduation rates, poor academic achievement, high rates of school suspensions and school dropouts, and chronic interpersonal problems. Additionally, these students are often underserved within the school…

Students with emotional and behavioral difficulties are often unserved or underserved by schools and by mental health systems. One reason for the under identification of these students is the current and past definitions of emotional disturbance (ED) specified in federal special education legislation (IDEA and IDEIA). These definitions are vague,…

Secondary students with or at risk for emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) can be characterized as having severe deficits in social competence. Moreover, as students transition into the secondary grades, social competence takes on increased complexity and importance. Social skills training (SST) represents a class of interventions…

Students with emotional and behavioral problems are placed in a variety of classroom settings, presumably where their needs can be best served. Little attention, however, has been dedicated to monitoring their behavioral progress in these settings. This study analyzed data on student engagement, disruption, and destruction during 10 types of…

Professionals working with children who have severe emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) need to understand the risk and protective factors (RPFs) that are correlated with the development of these behavior patterns, for at least 3 reasons. First, significant numbers of students experience negative outcomes or fail to achieve positive outcomes.…

Functional assessments were conducted to identify the variables maintaining disruptive behavior in eight, typically developing fifth-grade students enrolled in general education classrooms. Participants whose behavior was found to be functionally related to either task-avoidance or attention-seeking were randomly assigned to a treatment strategy…

In response to Forness and Kavale's (2001) argument that the field of emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) should adopt a "new" medical model, this commentary argues that the benefit of psychiatric diagnoses and pharmacologic treatments have not been established. It advocates a resistance-to-intervention approach to E/BD eligibility…

This article discusses the process of assessing social skills with students who have emotional and/or behavioral disorders. It describes a three-stage problem-solving model of problem identification, problem analysis, and treatment evaluation. Specific social skills assessment strategies are described and linked to a classification system of…

Children and youth exhibiting serious emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal problems create substantial challenges for schools, teachers, their parents, and other students. Stu-dents having these characteristics are often underserved or unserved by educational and mental health systems in the United States. Recent prevalence rates for children…

Three groups of third-grade students classified as either Externals (n=30), Internalizers (n=55), or Controls (n=96) were contrasted on 19 measures in social and academic domains. Results indicate large differences between externalizing and internalizing groups compared with controls; however, both externalizing and internalizing groups had…

Reviews past and present conceptualizations and summarized narrative and meta-analytic reviews of social skills training (SST) outcome studies. Overall, modest effect sizes are reported in the meta-analytic literature, suggesting that SST is a relatively weak intervention strategy. Recommendations for rebuilding SST are provided. (Author/CR)

Traces the evolution of the social competence concept from the 1970s to the present, and addresses matching social skills training to social skills deficits, understanding contextual issues in social skills training, generalization of social skills training, and developing and using meaningful outcome measures in social skills training. (Author/CR)

In an attempt to identify the earliest, most efficient, and most accurate predictors of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), characteristics of 155 third-graders at risk for EBD were examined. Students categorized as high-risk experienced higher rates of peer rejection and poor social skills and exhibited hyperactivity and defiant behaviors.…

The Student Self-Concept Scale (SSCS) assesses self-efficacy expectations, outcome expectations, and subjective task value across academic, social, and self-image domains. This article discusses the scale's theoretical basis, standardization, reliability, and validity and offers a case study illustrating use of the SSCS with a child who had a…