Patterns and correlates of learning, behavior, and emotional problems of adolescents with and without serious emotional disturbance

Abstract

We created a 40-item teacher rating scale to assess learning, social, and personal problems among students with serious emotional disturbance and no known handicaps. Special and regular educators completed ratings onChecklists and rating scales are widely used in schools and clinics for assessing students with behavioral and emotional problems (Edelbrock, 1988;O'Leary & Johnson, 1986). Although they possess drawbacks, checklists and rating scales also have several attractive characteristics (Kratochwill & Sheridan, 1990). A behavior rating scale, for example, can be implemented with economy of time and effort, address a wide range of problems and multiple students in one application, and assess the teacher, parent, or other rater's perception of a child's functioning, which is often important whether or not it is identical to that actual functioning. Rating scales generally possess relatively good reliability and validity, including the power, at least for some behavior problem patterns, to predict future adjustment (e.g., Walker, 1990). Research has consistently demonstrated that rating scale data can readily differentiate students classified as seriously emotionally disturbed from nondisabled peers (and those in other special education categories) at various ages (e.g., Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1981;Grossman, 1990;Sabornie, Thomas, & Coffman, 1989;Walker, Shinn, O'Neill, & Ramsey, 1987).Children's emotional and behavioral problems as measured by checklists and rating scales can be broadly summarized by two multivariate dimensions, sometimes termed externalizing and internalizing (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1989; Quay, 1986). These two dimensions are clearly characteristic of students with serious emotional disturbance (Luebke, Epstein, & Cullinan, 1987); but such pupils also generally experience considerable problems of learning, as manifested in lower intellectual ability, academic achievement, and other indices of unsatisfactory learning performance (e.g., Epstein, Kinder, & Bursuck, 1989). However, the literature on students with emotional disturbance and, generally, childhood psychopathology has tended to focus more on externalizing and internalizing disorders than on learning problems. Our first purpose in the present study was to develop and evaluate a brief teacher-completed rating scale consisting of items that address the three principal areas of school problems of adolescents with serious emotional disturbance, as noted above.Although there have been numerous studies of the characteristics of students with emotional disturbance in school (for reviews see, Cullinan, Epstein, & Lloyd, 1983;Kauffman, 1989), relatively little is known about how behavioral and emotional characteristics are related to other important traits of such pupils and their education, such as race, family status, placement, teacher experience, and so on. In addition to filling in some rather basic gaps in knowledge about students with emotional disturbance, such information could be important in pointing the way to more responsive, approp...

The passage to adulthood: Psychiatric rehabilitation service and transition-related needs of young adult women with emotional and psychiatric disorders.

“…Many youth with emotional and behavioral problems have significant challenges in learning (Epstein, Kinder & Bursuck, 1989). In a national study of 269 students with SED, ages 12 to 17 (and 49 nondisabled pupils), adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems had more academic and learning problems, as rated by teachers, than their nondisabled counterparts (Sabornie, Cullinan & Epstein, 1993), and these problems appeared to persist into young adulthood (Cook, Wessell & Dincin, 1987). Among youth with SED in the NLTS, nearly half (48%) dropped out of high school between grades 9 and 12 (Wagner et al, 1993).…”

Youth Functional Status and Academic Achievement in Collaborative Mental Health and Education Programs:Two California Care Systems

“…The National Adolescent and Child Treatment Study (NACTS) found that youth served in mental health and education systems had serious academic, emotional, and behavioral problems at entry into, and completion of, the study (Greenbaum, Dedrick, Friedman, & Kutash, 1996). In California, children and adolescents enrolled in collaborative mental health and education programs were, on average, one to two grade levels behind expected grade level on entering collaborative education/ mental health programs (Rosenblatt & Attkisson, 1997 Epstein, 1993). The multifaceted and diverse needs of youth with EBD has led authors to conclude that there is a significant need for special education services within this population (e.g., Kauffman, Cullinan, & Epstein, 1987;Sabomie et al, 1993).…”