Teacher Ratings of Student Social Behavior as a Predictor of Special Education Status: Discriminant Validity of the School Social Behavior Scales

Merrell, Kenneth W.; Sanders, Deanna E.; Popinga, Monique R.

doi:10.1177/073428299301100302

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Although one might predict that social behavior differences among these groups of students would be significant, the strength of those differences found in this study (between one and one-half and one and three-fourths standard deviations) are surprisingly large, and the ability of social behavior ratings to correctly classify these students into their respective groups is surprisingly good. In fact, based on evidence from previous research, these social behavior differences are as large as would be expected in a comparison of emotionally disturbed and regular education students (e.g., Merrell, Merz, Johnson, & Ring, 1992;Merrell, Sanders, & Popinga, 1993). Because the social-behavioral characteristics of &dquo;at-risk&dquo; students without identified disabilities have not been reported in the special education, school psychology, and psychoeducational assessment literature nearly to the extent as these same characteristics of students with disabilities, this investigation provides a valuable theoretical contribution to literature.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Social-Behavioral Assessment of At-Risk Early Adolescent Students: Psychometric Characteristics and Validity of a Parent Report Form of the School Social Behavior Scales

Merrell

Caldarella

1999

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

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The purposes of this investigation were to examine the validity of the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales (HCSBS) for differentiating at-risk and non-at-risk students in grades 6 through 9 and to evaluate psychometric characteristics of this instrument. Parent ratings of social competence and antisocial behavior on the HCSBS for a group of 160 students who were part of an at-risk prevention project were compared with those of 107 typical non-at-risk students. These students were all in grades 6 through 9, and the groups were relatively similar in terms of demographic characteristics. The at-risk group was rated as having significantly lower social competence and significantly higher rates of antisocial behavior than the non-at-risk group (p < .0001). Power analyses indicated that these group differences ranged from approximately 1½ to 1 3/4 standard deviations. Item level HCSBS scores were also shown to correctly classify the students into their respective groups with a great deal of accuracy (92.37% overall).Internal consistency coefficients of the two HCSBS scales were uniformly high (in the mid .90 range). These results provide new and useful evidence regarding the significant social behavior problems exhibited by at-risk students, as well as preliminary evidence of the validity and usefulness of the HCSBS. Implications for further research and psychoeducational assessment practice are discussed.In recent years there has been increased interest in research and educational/ mental health service delivery to youth who are considered to be &dquo;at-risk.&dquo; The term at-risk youth is used in various ways in the education and mental health fields, depending on the type of risk factors and the particular syndromes or disorders that are targeted. Catalano (1992) noted that there are several broad categories of risk factors commonly associated with youth problems such as substance abuse, delinquency, school dropout, and pregnancy. These risk factors include (a) community risk (e.g., poverty, violence, availability of drugs), (b) family risk (family history of high-risk behaviors, parent-child interaction problems), (c) school risk (lack of academic commitment), and (d) individual and peer risk (early development of antisocial behaviors, feelings of alienation, at University of Birmingham on June 15, 2015 jpa.sagepub.com Downloaded from

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Social-Behavioral Assessment of At-Risk Early Adolescent Students: Psychometric Characteristics and Validity of a Parent Report Form of the School Social Behavior Scales

Merrell

Caldarella

1999

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

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“…Arguably, no single group of students has benefited more from social skills research than students with emotional disturbance. Students with emotional disturbance tend to have more antisocial behaviors (Merrell, Sanders, & Popinga, 1993) and negative peer relationships (Asher & Hymel, 1981) than other populations with disabilities. Developing positive peer relationships and prosocial behaviors depends on "explicit social instruction" (Hallenbeck & Kauffman, 1995).…”

Section: Benjamin Lignugaris/kraft Utah State Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of a Dependent Group Contingency on the Verbal Interactions of Middle School Students with Emotional Disturbance

Hansen¹,

Lignugaris

2005

Behavioral Disorders

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“…Validity of the scales has been demonstrated in several ways, including statistically significant convergent and discriminant validity with other behavior rating scales (Emerson, Crowley, & Merrell, 1994;Merrell, 1993b); evidence of strong sensitivity to theoretically based group differences (Merrell, 1992(Merrell, , 1993bMerrell & Gill, 1994; Merrell, Sanders, & Popinga, 1993;Robbins & Merrell, 1998); convergence with other types of assessment such as sociometric procedures, self-report instruments, and direct behavioral observation (Merrell, 1993b;Merrell, Cedeno, & Johnson, 1993); and strong classification accuracy of students from various special education and clinical groups (Merrell, 1992(Merrell, , 1993bMerrell, Sanders, & Popinga, 1993). Additionally, a parent report version of the SSBS, the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales, was recently developed (Merrell, 2002).…”

Section: Instrumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Structure of the School Social Behavior Scales: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Crowley

Merrell²

2003

Assessment for Effective Intervention

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The School Social Behavior Scales (SSBS; Merrell 1993a) is a behavior rating instrument designed for use by teachers and other school personnel in evaluating social and antisocial behavior of children in grades K through 12. Published psychometric data for the SSBS have been promising to date. Although exploratory factor-analytic techniques were used to define its subscales, a confirmatory methodology has not been used with this measure. The present research sought to confirm the structure of the SSBS using the national data collected for the standardization and norming of the instrument. The standardization sample was split to allow for post-hoc model fitting, if necessary. The initial model tested for both the Social Competence and Antisocial Behavior scales was in line with the scoring recommendations of the author, and results suggested some model mis-specification. Alternative models were tested to identify a model that would provide a better fit to the data. After identification of an acceptable model, the invariance of the new model was tested with the remaining half of the standardization sample. Generally, both scales performed well and resulted in models very similar to those originally proposed by the author of the instrument. These findings support the continued use of the SSBS for both clinical and research purposes. Results are discussed from the perspectives of screening, assessment, and intervention planning with children and youth in K-12 educational settings.

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Teacher Ratings of Student Social Behavior as a Predictor of Special Education Status: Discriminant Validity of the School Social Behavior Scales

Cited by 13 publications

References 17 publications

Social-Behavioral Assessment of At-Risk Early Adolescent Students: Psychometric Characteristics and Validity of a Parent Report Form of the School Social Behavior Scales

Social-Behavioral Assessment of At-Risk Early Adolescent Students: Psychometric Characteristics and Validity of a Parent Report Form of the School Social Behavior Scales

Effects of a Dependent Group Contingency on the Verbal Interactions of Middle School Students with Emotional Disturbance

The Structure of the School Social Behavior Scales: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

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