Over the past several decades, the education, mental health, and social service fields have witnessed a significant shift in the focus of assessment of children moving from a solely deficit-based approach to a model incorporating strengths and competencies, which has been referred to as strength-based assessment. The "Behavioral and Emotional…

Students' self-perceptions are a foundation for educational and psychosocial development. In order to investigate self-perceptions, we need to recognise the preconceptions (e.g. doubts and confidence) students hold about themselves. In this study, we examined 10-16-year-old students' (N=599) self-perceptions from the viewpoints of the sources of…

The present study investigated evidence of the construct validity of scores from the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS-3), which is a multi-informant assessment designed to measure the behavioral and emotional strengths of school-aged youth. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the degree to which BERS-3 scores differed between…

Community-based systems of care (SOC) provide a range of services to students with significant emotional and behavioral difficulties and their families. However, little is known about the educational characteristics and functioning of students at enrollment in SOC. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend previous research by…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of a brief and feasible universal screener for kindergarten readiness for predicting follow-up outcomes in first grade. Participants included kindergarten and first-grade teachers and students from 6 urban elementary schools. Students included slightly more males than females (54%;…

Early adolescents' strengths were examined in relation to factors that are associated with developmental risk or resilience in two rural low-income southern communities. The sample was comprised of 279 students (101 boys, 178 girls), all of whom were African American and reflected the public school attendance of this community. Parent reports on…