Between 65 and 70 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have mental health disorders, with some studies estimating that at least 20 percent of these youth have severe disorders that significantly impair functioning. Many of these youth are entitled to adequate and responsive mental health services through federal programs like Medicaid's…

Functional analysis (FA) methodology is the most precise method for identifying variables that maintain problem behavior. Occasionally, however, results of an FA may be influenced by idiosyncratic sensitivity to aspects of the assessment conditions. For example, data from several studies suggest that inclusion of a tangible condition during an FA…