The "Screening Test for Emotional Problems-Self-Report" (STEP-S) was designed to assess students aged 10 to 17 years referred for wide-ranging emotional disturbances categorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. Preliminary analysis indicated that subscale coefficients alpha ranged from 0.76 to 0.85 and…

The repetitive behaviour questionnaire (RBQ) (Turner, 1995) is one of the three most commonly used interview/questionnaire measures of repetitive behaviour (Honey et al., in preparation). Despite this there is a scarcity of information concerning its structure, reliability and validity. The psychometric properties of the RBQ were examined when…

A Chinese version of the revised NEP Scale was generated and adopted in a survey among 507 students (age 10 to 12 years old) from three elementary schools in Shenzhen, China. The results show an acceptable level of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.65) but some abnormalities on the modified NEP scale: items 1 and 7 presented very low…

In exploratory or unrestricted factor analysis, all factor loadings are free to be estimated. In oblique solutions, the correlations between common factors are free to be estimated as well. The purpose of this article is to show how likelihood-based confidence intervals can be obtained for rotated factor loadings and factor correlations, by…

Personality assessment is a potentially important component of clinical and empirical work with neurological patients because (a) individual differences in personality may be associated with different neurological outcomes and (b) central nervous system changes may give rise to alteration in personality. For personality assessment to be useful to…

Using standards established for validation research, I review the theory and evidence underlying the validity argument of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). I use the NSSE because it is the preeminent survey of college students, arguing that if it lacks validity, then so do almost all other college student surveys. I find that it…

The author reviews Childhood Autism Rating Scale-Second Edition (CARS2), a useful tool for supporting the diagnostic process and for forming intervention recommendations once a diagnosis has been made. CARS2 consists of three rating forms designed to identify symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Published in 2010, the CARS2…

Purpose: To examine multimodal spoken word-in-sentence recognition in children. Method: Two experiments were undertaken. In Experiment 1, the youngest age with which the multimodal sentence recognition materials could be used was evaluated. In Experiment 2, lexical difficulty and presentation modality effects were examined, along with test-retest…

Principals and teachers do not use large-scale assessment results because the lack of distinct and reliable subtests prevents identifying strengths and weaknesses of students and instruction, the results arrive too late to be used, and principals and teachers need assistance to use the results to improve instruction so as to improve student…

The Preschool Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (PreBERS) is an assessment of emotional and behavioral strengths in preschoolers with well-established reliability and validity for educational and clinical application in children with and without disabilities. The present study provides further evidence of psychometric rigor for items and…

Traditional resources for ascertaining risk and protection for disengaged youth are often unsuitable, due to the stamina and skill required to complete them. Many of these tools assess risk without considering participants' potential for personal growth. The present study outlines the development and initial validation of a tool titled the…

The purpose of this article is to bring attention to the 10 most pressing questions relevant to musculoskeletal physical fitness testing in children and adolescents. The goal is to stimulate research to answer these questions. The most pressing needs include establishing definitive links between valid, reliable, and feasible field test measures of…

Gratitude was an important missing factor in the extant relationship quality and relationship loyalty model. We introduced gratitude into the model of relationship quality and relationship loyalty. Two hundred and eighteen teachers from elementary schools in Taiwan were used to conduct an empirical research. The results show that teachers'…

Background: There is a relative lack of measures tailored to the study of fathers of children with developmental challenges (DCs). The goal of the current study was to create and validate a brief measure designed to capture the perceptions and experiences of these fathers. The Fathers of Children with Developmental Challenges (FCDC) questionnaire…

With many states moving toward increased accountability for all teachers, special educators, who have long been held accountable through the implementation of individualized education programs and the use of evidence-based practices, have much to offer. Formative instructional practices are evidence-based techniques that are familiar to special…