Abstract
We examined (a) the utility of teacher ratings on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman in J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 40:1337–1345, 2001. doi:10.1097/00004583-200111000-00015) and BASC-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS; Kamphaus and Reynolds in Behavior assessment system for children-second edition: behavioral and emotional screening system. Pearson, Bloomington, 2007), completed at kindergarten entry, in identifying risk status as defined by important criterion variables (teacher ratings of impairment, daily behavioral performance, and quarterly grades in kindergarten and first grade), and (b) the incremental validity of scores on each of these rating scales in predicting criterion variables beyond that predicted by the school district’s academic screening tool. The participants were 248 kindergarten students (91 % response rate) from one school district. Receiver operating characteristic analyses and area under the curve values indicate that both measures have moderate to high utility (AUCs ≥ .78) in identifying children demonstrating at-risk academic performance, problematic classroom behavior, and impairment in social and emotional functioning. Regression analyses indicate that both measures account for incremental variance (between 6.69 and 45.84 %) in kindergarten outcomes beyond that accounted for by the school district’s academic screening tool. The BESS was a slightly stronger predictor of academic outcomes, and the SDQ was a slightly stronger predictor of peer outcomes. Implications for selecting a teacher measure for universal screening of social, emotional, and behavioral problems at kindergarten entry are discussed.
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Notes
We are pleased to report that, since the data collection procedures for this study Ohio has added a social emotional component to the KRAL, as this highlights the importance and relevance of the scientific question we are studying.
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Acknowledgments
During the preparation of this article, Julie S. Owens was supported by Grants from the Department of Education, Institute of Educational Sciences (R324A120003; R324A120272; R324C080006) and the Disability Research and Dissemination Center through its Grant (5U01DD001007-03) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We wish to extent our gratitude to the parents and teachers of the Logan Hocking School District who participated in the project, and the district administration for continued support and participation in our community-university partnership. We would also like to thank Steven W. Evans for providing feedback on the manuscript.
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All procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. University and school district IRB approval were obtained prior to conducting the research, and informed consent was obtained from the caregivers of all participants included in the study.
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Owens, J.S., Holdaway, A.S., Serrano, V.J. et al. Screening for Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Problems at Kindergarten Entry: The Utility of Two Teacher Rating Scales. School Mental Health 8, 319–331 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-016-9176-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-016-9176-1