Understanding School Truancy: Risk–Need Latent Profiles of Adolescents

Abstract

Washington state requires school districts to file court petitions on students with excessive unexcused absences resulting in thousands of youth becoming involved in the court system. Once in the system, decisions are made about the level of risk each youth has for maladaptive behaviors. The Washington Assessment of the Risks and Needs of Students was created to assist youth service providers, courts, and schools to identify an adolescent’s needs for social, emotional, or educational intervention. However, the profile-based decisions advocated for by test developers lack empirical justification. This study employed latent profile analysis to examine risk and needs profiles of adolescents based on the Washington Assessment of the Risks and Needs of Students assessment. Profiles were developed to aid understanding of behaviors associated with school truancy, and examined across outcome variables (e.g., suspensions, arrests) to evaluate evidence in support of predictive claims. Results suggest distinct profiles that differ on important outcomes.

Factor Structure and Invariance of an Adolescent Risks and Needs Assessment

“…The WARNS seeks to provide a method to quickly gather and synthesize information relevant to the initial stages of engagement with at-risk youth. Its purpose is to allow counselors, case managers, and school personnel to better understand specific risks and needs of the youth with whom they work, to guide conversations, and to develop successful intervention plans (Iverson, French, Strand, Gotch, & McCurley, 2016; Strand & Lovrich, 2014). Additionally, given that the WARNS was conceived of as a screening instrument, a premium was placed on ease of administration, scoring, and interpretation.…”

An Ecological Framework for Item Responding Within the Context of a Youth Risk and Needs Assessment

“…Students responded to a rating scale, 0 = Never, almost never to 3 = Always, almost always , indicating a thought, behavior, or emotion during the past 2‐month period. WARNS scores have associations with other variables assessing problematic outcomes ( r = .25 – .28) and similar risk and needs scales ( r range = .50 – .86; George et al., 2015), and support different profiles for interpretation of levels of risk and needs (e.g., Iverson et al., 2016).…”

Equivalence Testing of a Youth Risk and Needs Assessment

“…The Washington Assessment of the Risks and Needs of Students (WARNS; George et al, 2015) is used by school administrators, courts, and youth service providers to understand behaviors related to truancy. For the WARNS, evidence for a scoring inference (e.g., French & Vo, 2019), and an extrapolation inference (e.g., Iverson et al, 2016) exist. However, the WARNS lacks factor invariance (FI), a form of MI, evidence across diverse groups.…”