The overrepresentation of minority students identified for special education services continues to plague schools and serves as a challenge for researchers and practitioners (Ferri&Conner,2005). Teacher nomination, office discipline referrals (ODR), and functional behavior assessments (FBA) continue to guide referral processes (Bradshaw, Mitchell, O’Brennen, & Leaf, 2010; Eklund, et al., 2009; Mustian, 2010). These methods have been found to be riddled with inconsistencies. Practices used to identify students for behavioral and emotional interventions over-identify students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The use of a behavioral and emotional screener to make data-based decisions regarding placement and services could provide an objective assessment of student risk. The first chapter of this dissertation reviews methods used in the identification of students for behavioral and emotional support services. Additionally, the use of universal screening in conjunction with student self-report are proposed as tools for alleviating the overrepresentation of minority students in special education programs for behavioral and emotional disorders. The second chapter of this dissertation explores the measurement equivalence of Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2) Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Student form (BESS Student) across the Black, Hispanic, and White participants in the norming sample. The BESS Student as a universal screening tool is poised to alleviate the disproportionate number of children of color identified by schools as having behavior and emotional disorders. This instrument also provides an avenue to identify students with internalizing disorders who are often overlooked in present referral practices (Bradshaw, Buckley, & Ialongo, 2008; Kataoka, Zhang, & Wells, 2002). The findings of the measurement equivalence study suggests that the BESS Student is, as designed, identifying behavioral and emotional risk across each of the three groups explored. These findings support the use of a universal screening measure as the first step in a multi-step identification and intervention process. Following up with additional assessment to evaluate the specific areas of risk warranting intervention is pivotal to providing appropriate support services and promoting the behavioral and emotional health of students. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Cette recherche doctorale traite de la régulation sociale du risque émotionnel dans le travail. Elle s’appuie sur une étude comparative portant sur trois milieux professionnels : les pompes funèbres, l’hôpital et la police. Le recueil de données a été réalisé grâce aux méthodes qualitatives, soit 350 heures d’observations pour chaque métier et une soixantaine d’entretiens au total. Ces professions sont confrontées à un public éprouvé que l’on pense aux familles en deuil dans les pompes funèbres, aux enfants malades et à leurs familles à l’hôpital ou aux victimes et mis en cause dans la police. Mais ce public est également éprouvant pour les professionnels, dans la mesure où l’état émotionnel de l’usager peut se répercuter sur celui du professionnel. Les émotions peuvent alors impacter la réalisation du travail et le bien-être des professionnels ; c’est ce que nous proposons d’appeler un risque émotionnel. L’émotion est constitutive du travail relationnel qui est au coeur de la relation de service. Pour autant, cet aspect du travail est d’emblée ambivalent, car le facteur émotionnel peut être aussi bien un levier au bon déroulement du travail, qu’un risque à l’accomplissement du service.Comment le collectif de travail traite-t-il du risque émotionnel ? Nous proposons une analyse autour de la mise en règle collective du risque émotionnel. À partir d’une définition de notre objet, nous analysons les situations, les actions et acteurs qui mettent sous contrôle le risque émotionnel. Notre perspective s’intéresse au processus de la régulation sociale, aux phases de la mise en règle du risque et à son résultat. Celui-ci aboutit à une routinisation de l’activité que les professionnels élaborent pour encadrer le risque émotionnel. / This doctoral research deals with the social regulation of emotional risk in the work. It is based on a comparative study of three professional backgrounds: the funeral, hospital and police. Data collection was conducted through qualitative methods, or 350 hours of observations for each trade and sixty interviews in total. These occupations are facing a public affected by their situation; be it bereaved families in the funeral, the sick children and their families in the hospital or to the victims and questioned in the police. But that public is also demanding for professionals, insofar as the emotional state of the user may have an impact that of the professional. These emotions can then impact the performance of work and emotional well-being of workers; this is what we propose to call an emotional risk. Emotion is constitutive of relational work which is at the heart of the relationship of service. However, this aspect of the work is ambivalent from the start because the emotional factor may be both a lever for a good workflow as well as a risk to the fulfillment of the service. How does the work collective work with the emotional risk? We offer an analysis about setting collective rule of the emotional risk. From a definition of our purpose, we analyze situations, actions and actors who put under control emotional risk. Our perspective focuses on the process of social regulation, the phases of the implementation rule of risk and its result. This leads to routinization of activity that professionals develop to frame the emotional risk.