Behavioral Disorders

The authors examined school discipline problems in relation to academic and interpersonal characteristics of students in a middle school of a rural low-income community. The sample comprised 259 students (83 boys, 176 girls)—all of whom were African American—and reflected the community's public school attendance. School records were examined, and students were identified as having no offenses, minor offenses, or major offenses. More than 50% of the girls had no offenses, and fewer than 20% had major offenses. Girls identified as having no offenses tended to be competent across the academic, behavioral, and social domains, whereas girls with major offenses tended to have multiple problems. For the boys, 37% had major offenses and 34% had no offenses. Involvement in aggression appeared to be the primary factor that differentiated among boys who were and were not referred for discipline problems. The authors discuss the results in terms of their implications for assessment and prevention.

Current discipline policies have led to an increase in the use of exclusion with students with disabilities, thereby preventing some from receiving a free and appropriate public education. Students from ethnically and racially diverse groups and students with emotional or behavioral disorders are reported to have disproportionately higher rates of suspensions than others. The authors of this study analyzed disciplinary exclusion data in the last 4 years published by the U.S. Department of Education. Results indicated that (a) there was an increasing trend in exclusion of special education students; (b) African American and American Indian/Alaskan Native students were excluded more often than students from other racial groups; (c) some states excluded students with disabilities more often than the rest of the states; (d) students in the West were removed by school personnel more often than students in the other regions; (e) students in the South were more likely to receive short-term suspensions; and (f) interaction effects existed between certain variables. The authors discuss these results and make recommendations for future research.

Although there has long been concern about underidentification or misidentification of children with emotional or behavioral disorders in special education, recent attention has also been focused on disproportionate racial and ethnic representation of children in the school category of emotional disturbance (ED). There is evidence that African American children may be overidentified in the ED category while Asian and Hispanic children may be underidentified, although these findings are not consistent from sample to sample. In this study the authors examined parental beliefs about the causes of their child's problems as a potential partial mediator between race or ethnicity and special education identification for emotional disturbance. The sample of 1,019 children was drawn from a larger study of at-risk youths who were active in at least one of five public sectors of care. In this sample, parental explanatory etiologies relating to personality and relational issues were found to account for part of the racial or ethnic differences in ED service use for Latino and Asian American/Pacific Islander children.

Universal measures of school functioning/impairment (i.e., grade point average, subject failures, absenteeism, disciplinary referrals/suspensions) were examined over the course of 1 school year for a cohort of 89 special education students classified as having emotional disturbance (ED) who were taught in a unique public school program. On average during the year the students achieved at a high “C” level, failed major subjects infrequently, missed 11 days of school, and rarely were tardy. They averaged one disciplinary referral per marking period, but the majority were never suspended out of school. The measures generally were consistent across marking periods, independent of each other, and significantly correlated to DSM-IV psychiatric disorders (as rated by their teachers). Teachers contributed little variance to the measures. The findings support the increased use of these universal indicators of school function in students with ED as a research tool and a meaningful way of communication with educators about such students.

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 time, and across child gender for the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 4–18 (CBCL/4–18) and the Teacher Response Form (TRF). Measurement models using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis were examined for child behavior ratings obtained, for the same child, at 54 months and first grade from mothers, fathers, and teachers. Model contracts were also evaluated to determine whether the measurement of behavioral problems was different for boys and girls. This study involved approximately 700 children from the prospective, longitudinal database of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The general form and factor loadings of the CBCL 4–18 and TRF were invariant across mothers, fathers, and teachers and held regardless of the target child's gender. These results suggest that the low correlations between parent and teacher ratings of behavior problems appear more likely to result from differences in situation-specific behavior than from the manner in which they are measured.

Recent literature regarding functional behavior assessment (FBA) in general education environments has been critical of the paucity of research in such settings, given the complex and often time-consuming nature of FBA. Less complex team-based FBA processes have been suggested as a realistic alternative for general education environments. This study describes an informal team-based FBA process implemented with 39 school-based teams who hypothesized behavioral function for students who had been referred. Data from these meetings was then supplied to three national FBA experts who attempted to generate hypotheses from the same information. Results indicate little agreement between teams and experts or between the experts themselves. Analysis of these data prompt a discussion of the possible effect that information sources, individual perceptions, and personal experiences play in the development of functional hypotheses.

The increased prevalence and seriousness of antisocial behavior displayed by today's youths have become serious concerns for parents, educators, and community members. Antisocial behavior has a developmental course that starts with minor offenses in preschool (e.g., whining, teasing, noncompliance) and develops into major offenses (e.g., vandalism, stealing, assault, homicide) in older children and adolescents. Research results suggest that if interventions are implemented in the early elementary years, the likelihood of preventing future antisocial behavior is improved. Furthermore, interventions are said to be more successful if family members and teachers are involved. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an early intervention strategy, First Step to Success, involving (a) teacher-directed and (b) a combination of teacher- and parent-directed strategies on the behaviors of elementary school children at risk for antisocial behavior. The results suggest that interventions involving teachers and parents were associated with decreases in problem behavior in the classroom that maintained over 1 academic school year after intervention. Implications and recommendations are presented based on the outcomes and limitations of this study.