This study examined the clinical utility of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument--Second Version (MAYSI-2) among African American (AA) incarcerated youth and used White incarcerated youth as a comparison group. Data were analyzed for 314 incarcerated youth (193 AA offenders and 121 White offenders) of ages 13-17 years who were adjudicated…

A line of research has supported the incremental and construct validity of multi-informant assessment. Accordingly, multiple universal screening systems have been designed to support the collection of information from multiple informants. The purpose of the study was to expand the "Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener"…

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…

We report findings of two studies, one conducted in a rural school district (N = 982) and a second conducted in an urban district (N = 1,079), offering additional evidence of the reliability and validity of a revised instrument, the Student Risk Screening Scale-Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE), to accurately detect internalizing and…

The Behavior Objective Checklist, (BOC) a measure to determine social/emotional/behavioral goals and objectives on the Individualized Education Program, was administered to 27 psychiatric day or inpatient children (preschool-grade six). Analysis suggested adequate reliability and validity for the BOC. (CL)

Six behavior rating scales used with children with problematic behaviors were reviewed for psychometric soundness of reliability and validity. They are: Behavior Dimensions Rating Scale; Behavior Evaluation Scale; Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Report Form; Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale; Revised Behavior Problem Checklist;…

The Walker/Severson Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders measure was revised for use with preschool children. The revision consists of three hierarchical stages of increasingly time-consuming methodologies: (1) teacher rankings, (2) teacher ratings, and (3) direct behavioral observations. Testing with 121 children demonstrated significant…

This article discusses evidence for functional behavioral assessment (FBA) procedures in terms of the meaning and interpretation of different forms of reliability and validity in FBA. It concludes that additional research needs to be conducted with various target behaviors across different settings to support the continued use of FBA. (Contains…

This study reports on the standardization of the Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance. Data collected on 2,266 typical students (ages 5- 18) and 1,371 students with emotional disturbances led to the identification of six behavioral problem factors that correspond to the federal definition of emotional disturbance and were highly internally…

Twenty-four studies involving functional assessment of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) or those at risk for E/BD are reviewed in three main areas: (1) characteristics of participants; (2) types of functional assessment procedures and instruments employed; and (3) the reliability and validity of these instruments and…

Two measures of community-based social behavior for adolescents and young adults with emotional and behavioral disorders, the male and female forms of the Test of Community-Based Social Skill Knowledge and the Scale of Community-Based Social Skill Performance, were examined. Results found the measures yielded acceptable reliabilities and exhibited…

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…