Complex competences, such as managing students' aggressive behaviour, are challenging to develop during teacher training. Recently, video-based simulations have been considered promising, yet suitable assessment instruments are limitedly available. This paper reports on the design and evaluation of a video-based assessment tool tailored to measure…

The processes by which children are classified as aggressive have important educational and research implications. For example, aggression in childhood reliably predicts dropping out of school and incarceration. The author argues that the sex-role stereotypicality of aggression produces bias in both observers and raters of student behavior. The…

The climate of school classrooms, shaped by a combination of teacher practices and peer processes, is an important determinant for children's psychosocial functioning and is a primary factor affecting bullying and victimization. Given that there are relatively few theoretically grounded and validated assessment tools designed to measure the social…

The purpose of this study is to investigate why girls in an urban high school setting engage in physical fights in order to better understand the female student's mindset about fighting. A search of ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, Psychological Abstracts, Dissertation Abstracts and dissertations was conducted to review research in the following…

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a frequently used multivariate analysis technique in statistics. Jennrich and Sampson (1966) solved a significant EFA factor loading matrix rotation problem by deriving the direct Quartimin rotation. Jennrich was also the first to develop standard errors for rotated solutions, although these have still not made…

Almost all research on aggression in adolescent romantic relationships makes use of 1-time, retrospective assessment methods. In the present research, the authors compared data on the experience of adolescent relationship aggression (physical aggression and threatening behavior) collected from 125 high school students via 2 methods: (a) a 1-time,…

This article reviews the development of functional analysis in understanding behavior problems like self-injury and aggression and, more recently, school-based problems. Seen as particularly promising is current work on the analysis of setting events and analysis of dependent variables by considering the effects of intervention on response…

Investigates bully/victim problems among five classes of 11 to 12-year-old children attending five elementary schools in Hellas (Greece) using Arora and Thompson's "Life in School" questionnaire. The majority of the items in the questionnaire seemed to cross cultural barriers for assessing the incidents of bullying from an international…

The present study compares the results of three two-dimensional procedures for sociometric status determination: the Asher and Dodge (1986) system, the rating scale method SSrat of Maassen, Akkermans, and Van der Linden (1996), and the nomination procedure of Coie and Dodge (1983). The study followed 170 children from third grade through sixth…

Functional analysis of the aggressive behavior of 2 boys (ages 10 and 12) with autism involved 20 brief functional assessment trials in the classroom under 3 conditions. Results showed a clear pattern in each child's aggressive behavior and suggested logical intervention strategies. The discrete-trial approach presented a practical, ecologically…

Peers serve as reinforcers and models of behavior, and consequently classrooms containing high numbers of students with poor academic skills or behavior problems are likely to promote these behaviors in individual students. This study examined how variations in social and academic classroom composition as well as the larger school context affected…

Describes a research study involving 120 pupils from Scottish comprehensive schools which measured pupils' reactions to different teaching styles designed to control disruptive behavior. Results of the analysis of variance are presented and it is concluded that some control strategies which initially appear effective may have other deleterious…

Direct observation in natural settings has been recognized for nearly a century as an important methodology to capture the nuances of children's behavior for research, clinical assessment, and program evaluation. These ecologically valid descriptive data complement more widely used behavior rating scales to evaluate the impact of intervention…

Sixteen seventh and eighth graders previously identified as having behavioral problems earned significantly higher post-test scores on a test of REBT concepts immediately after participation in a Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) training program, and this knowledge was retained after an 8-week follow-up period (p less than 0.01).…

Standardized rating scales are the most often used part of the multidimensional assessment of children's behavior. However, low cross-informant correlations raise concerns about the reliability and validity of the resulting scores. This study examined whether the manner in which behavioral constructs are measured differs across informants, across…