Post-pandemic, there has been a rise in verbal and physical fights and bullying as well as a greater number of students who are failing to engage in the classroom. While the pandemic contributed to the struggles that children are experiencing, inconsistency in schools has added to the challenge. The collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic…

Children and youth with deficits in social competence present substantial challenges for schools, teachers, parents and peers. These challenges cut across disciplinary, instructional and interpersonal domains and they frequently create chaotic home, school and classroom environments. Schools are charged with teaching an increasingly diverse…

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Therapeutic Alliance Scale for Caregivers and Parents (TASCP) in a sample of 209 caregivers whose children (4-13 years of age) presented with disruptive behavior problems to a publicly funded outpatient mental health clinic in San Diego County. Information about therapeutic alliance was…

The reliability and validity of scores on the Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale-second edition-teacher version (DBRS-II-T) was analyzed. The DBRS-II-T was designed to assess teacher observations of students referred for behavioral difficulties. The five-factor model fit the data poorly, but convergent and diagnostic validities were excellent.…

The aim of this study was to validate a questionnaire on academic competence behaviour for use with Chinese preschool children in Hong Kong. A parent version and a teacher version were developed and evaluated. The participants included 457 children (230 boys and 227 girls) aged four and five years old, their preschool teachers and their parents.…

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is a well-established treatment for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and is thus widely recommended. However, the content of EIBI programs presumably varies considerably and may not always be tailored to the individual strengths and deficits of each child. Few assessment tools exist (and…

The lack of empirical research relating temperament models and personality hinders conceptual integration and holds back research linking childhood traits to problem behavior or maladjustment. This study evaluates, within a sample of 443 preschoolers, the relationships between children's maladaptation and traits measured by three temperament…

Needs assessments in substance abuse prevention often rely on secondary data measures of consumption and consequences to determine what population subgroup and geographic areas should receive a portion of limited resources. Although these secondary data measures have some benefits (e.g. large sample sizes, lack of survey response biases and cost),…

We investigated the psychometric properties of a new instrument, the Children's Worry Management Scale (CWMS). The CWMS has three subscales that specify methods of regulating worry: inhibition (the suppression of worry), dysregulation (exaggerated displays of worry), and coping (constructive ways of managing worry). Using a Caucasian, middle-class…

The "Self-Assessment and Program Review" (SAPR) was developed to provide an assessment tool that schools could use to track their progress in implementing key practices related to all three levels of schoolwide positive behavior supports (SWPBS). The SAPR is a team-based assessment tool, using both individual and team ratings of 10…

Character education has become one of the fastest growing reform movements in K-12 education today, partially in response to unacceptable levels of student misbehavior and inadequate endorsement of good character values (Williams 2000). Between 1993 and 2009, 36 states passed laws mandating or recommending some aspect of character education in…

Consultation researchers have long recognized the importance of assessing fidelity of intervention implementation, including the fidelity with which both consultation procedures and behavioral intervention plans are delivered. However, despite decades of discussion about the importance of assessing for fidelity of implementation in intervention…

Attributional theory and empirical evidence suggest that a tendency to make stable, global self-causal attributions for undesirable events is associated with negative outcomes. However, existing self-report measures of parental attributions do not account for the possibility that dysfunctional parent-causal attributions for child misbehavior might…

We examined the validity and reliability of a self-report outcome measure for children between the ages of 8 and 11. The Ohio Scales Problem Severity scale is a brief, practical outcome measure available in three parallel forms: Parent, Youth, and Agency Worker. The Youth Self-Report form is currently validated for children ages 12 and older. The…

Office discipline referrals (ODRs) are commonly used by school teams implementing schoolwide positive behavior support to indicate individual student need for additional behavior support. However, little is known about the technical adequacy of ODRs when used in this manner. In this study, the authors assessed (a) the concurrent validity of number…