Development of a problem-focused behavioral screener linked to evidence-based intervention.

Abstract

This study examines the factor structure, reliability and validity of a novel school-based screening instrument for academic and disruptive behavior problems commonly experienced by children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants included 39 classroom teachers from two public school districts in the northeastern United States. Teacher ratings were obtained for 390 students in grades K-6. Exploratory factor analysis supports a two-factor structure (oppositional/disruptive and academic productivity/disorganization). Data from the screening instrument demonstrate favorable internal consistency, temporal stability and convergent validity. The novel measure should facilitate classroom intervention for problem behaviors associated with ADHD by identifying at-risk students and determining specific targets for daily behavior report card interventions.

Dependability of Direct Behavior Rating Single- and Multi-Item Scales Across Raters and Occasions in Two School Subjects

“…To identify specific problematic behaviors that were of most relevance in the target classroom, the German version of the Integrated Screening and Intervention System–Teacher Report Form (Volpe & Fabiano, 2013) was used. The ITRF is a universal problem-focused behavioral screener that broadly measures 43 specific classroom behaviors loading on the two factors of Academic Productivity Problem (APP) and Oppositional/ Disruptive Behavior (OD; Daniels, Volpe, Briesch, & Fabiano, 2014). Item analyses of the American version revealed factor loadings from 0.40 to 0.89 (APP), and 0.45 to 0.84 (OD; Daniels et al, 2014).…”

“…The ITRF is a universal problem-focused behavioral screener that broadly measures 43 specific classroom behaviors loading on the two factors of Academic Productivity Problem (APP) and Oppositional/ Disruptive Behavior (OD; Daniels, Volpe, Briesch, & Fabiano, 2014). Item analyses of the American version revealed factor loadings from 0.40 to 0.89 (APP), and 0.45 to 0.84 (OD; Daniels et al, 2014). The German version demonstrated good fit for the two-factor model, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = .07, comparative fit index (CFI) = .97, and high internal consistency (APP: α = .91; OD: α = .87) with high item loadings from 0.70 to 0.90 (APP), and 0.74 to 0.92 (OD; Volpe et al, 2018).…”

Treatment Sensitivity of Direct Behavior Rating–Multi-Item Scales in the Context of a Daily Report Card Intervention

“…The ITRF is a 43-item screening instrument (Volpe & Fabiano, 2013), which was used to confirm the severity of child behaviors. The ITRF focuses on specific observable and malleable behaviors (rather than diagnostic symptoms) that inform the development of DRC target behaviors, are viewed as acceptable by teachers (Daniels et al, 2016), and have demonstrated high internal consistency (α = .97), strong 2- to 4-week stability ( r = .84) and evidence for convergent validity ( r >.81) with scores from a measure of overall problem behavior (Daniels, Volpe, Briesch, & Fabiano, 2014). Each item is rated on a 4-point scale, ranging from 0 ( no concern ) to 3 ( strong concern ).…”

Cognitive Behavioral Training Reduces Socially Anxious Classroom Behavior in Primary School Students

“…The ITRF is part of the Integrated Screening and Intervention System (Volpe and Fabiano, 2013), which incorporates universal screening, intervention, and behavioral progress monitoring. Numerous studies support its factorial validity, internal consistency and retest reliability (Daniels et al, 2014;Volpe et al, 2018;Volpe et al, 2020), the construct validity (Casale et al, 2019), and the cross-cultural equivalence (Casale et al, 2018). In this study, we used the internalizing behavior scales of the ITRF (anxious/depressive, social withdrawal) to precisely identify the problematic classroom behaviors raising the most concern for the students.…”