The present study examined the effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a core behavior modification method on students with severe behavior disorders. A pre/posttest design was implemented and both control and treatment groups were exposed to testing measures. Students in the treatment group were exposed to ACT as well as contingency based classroom management, and a token economy in an attempt to increase grade point average (GPA), days in attendance, and psychological flexibility. Results are discussed regarding the increase in GPA and attendance, and levels of psychological flexibility are also elaborated upon. Limitations, implications, and future research are also discussed.

Recent research on the early development of knowledge about emotions shows that young children's use and comprehension of emotion language develops from an initial emphasis on expressive/behavioural referents to situational terms towards referents emphasising the sub] ective/experiential nature of emotions. Gender, the type of emotion, the discourse context of the emotion talk and individual differences in strategies to regulate negative emotions are some factors that are shown to moderate the development of emotion language abilities. However, as most of the data comes from early language users there are significant limitations to our knowledge of emotion language development and its implications for emotion regulation. This thesis examines emotion language in early to middle adolescence. It develops a theoretically derived classification model to study the representational and causal structure of emotions evident in the emotion language of 13 to 17 yearolds. Study 1 uses a group format to sample descriptive accounts of emotions and their causes from a normative sample of 303 adolescents in response to emotionally relevant vignettes prototypical of anger and fear. Study 2 compares the lepresentational structure and quality of emotion language between 21 adolescents diagnosed with extemalising disorders (Conduct disorder, Oppositional Defiant disorder), 18 with internalising disorders (Depressive disorders, Anxiety disorders) and 16 without a disorder. It broadens the types of emotion eliciting material by including autobiographical events and an actual emotional challenge as well as the vignette stimuli. In addition, the second study uses an individual participant-interviewer procedure. Results of Study 1 indicated increase in the range and complexity of emotion referents and causal accounts of emotions from early to middle adolescents. Despite an increase in internalist/subjective causal accounts of emotions with age, there was a move towards a more externalised or situational focus in the representation of emotions for the older adolescents in response to the anger material. The findings showed that the ability to distinguish between sadness and anger and appropriately use anger and sad referents develops relatively late with some younger adolescents continuing to have difficulties with this distinction. There were a number of specific gender related differences in emotion language consistent with gender differences in display rules for emotions. In particular, boys showed a preference for expressive/behavioural emotion referents while girls preferred referents with a cognitive focus and use more inner-focused referents. Study 1 also provided initial data about differences between adolescents with extemalising problems, those with intemalising problems and non-problem adolescents. Results indicated more use of non-specific referents by adolescents with extemalising behavioural problems as well as less intensity and involvement in their emotion referents. Adolescents with extemalising problems were more likely to use non-specific referents in responses to anger material than those with intemalising problems. The results of Study 2 showed that adolescents with oppositional and conduct problems show deficits in the fluency, complexity and degree of specification of their emotion language and their causal accounts of emotions compared to non- problem youth and those with depression and anxiety problems. In addition, adolescents with intcmalising problems were less fluent in the production of causal accounts of emotions and used less specific emotion referents to fear events compared to non-problem youth. The results highlight the finding that emotion language is affected differentially for extemalising and internalising adolescents depending on the nature of the emotion-eliciting event. In particular, intemalising youth's language responses to anger events are characterised by inner-directed referents, and reduced intensity and involvement while their conceptualisation of salient fear material is dominated by cognitively focused terms and accounts. Extemalising adolescents language responses to anger events are more outer-directed and intense, and their emotion construals in a fear situation less cognitive and more affect orientated. The data from these studies highlight the need to study emotion language for specific emotion domains, and suggest that the most interesting theoretical questions are in respect of emotion understanding and emotion language abilities for specific behavioural and emotional disorders. The results also support the utility of an approach that combines knowledge about emotion language from the psychological and linguistic literature. It argues for an expansion of our knowledge about the development of the lexicon for emotions and other syntactic and pragmatic linguistic competencies that are important for conceptualising emotions in language. Such an expansion is crucial to investigating associations between early emotional competencies assessed through language and later outcomes in terms of behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of an interdependent group contingency commonly referred to as the “good behavior game” (GBG) on reducing disruptive behaviors in a dedicated classroom for students with emotional behavioral disorder (EBD). The participants were four eighth-grade middle school students, with a primary diagnosis of EBD. The intervention targeted inappropriate and disruptive behaviors during two class periods (math and science), as well appropriate alternative behaviors. The class was divided into two teams, with the four participants divided evenly amongst both teams. If a team met the criterion for both inappropriate and appropriate behavior during experimental sessions, each team member received an edible reinforcer (candy). In addition, teams that met the weekly goal of winning the most games earned a trip to a classroom with younger peers to participate in a social activity (pizza party, movie and popcorn, etc.). The results indicated a decrease in inappropriate behaviors, as well as an increase in appropriate behaviors. The results suggested that the GBG is a beneficial group interdependent contingency that can be implemented in many classroom settings, including an alternative EBD middle school classroom. .

This study identified the expected knowledge/skills needed for working with children and youth with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) in general education classroom settings, as identified by general educators.

This study examined the attitudes of regular education teachers at the elementary school level, toward mainstreaming students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) and identified variables which were correlated with those attitudes.

The voices of Black male students labeled ED are seldom heard regarding their perspectives on education and their lives in general. By excluding their opinions, educators are missing an important aspect that could improve educational services for Black males with ED. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine the implications of Web-based mentoring as a platform for Black male students with ED to articulate their thoughts on the factors that impact their behaviors and achievement. Mentoring as an intervention granted Black males with ED a platform to share their thoughts. Technology was used as an educational resource to academically engage students with ED. Mentoring and technology were combined in a Web-based mentoring model designed to simulate traditional mentoring. Individual mentoring was simulated using live video conferencing. Role modeling was simulated by featuring video clips of the mentor in authentic capacities and group mentoring discussions were simulated by featuring a participant blog on the web site. To determine the implication and emergent themes of Web-based mentoring, two Black males with ED in high school participated in the study. Results of the study revealed that the participant's behavior and achievement were impacted by negative school and home environments. For Student One, negative school environments, specifically poor peer relations, resulted in aggressive behaviors that interfered with his academic progress. He stated, "I thought it would be different in high school, but it is the same as middle school. Student Two expressed disappointment with his home environment stating, "With all I got going on, it is hard to focus on school." Implications of the model on attendance, achievement, and behavior did not demonstrate an appreciable impact. However, both student participants expressed satisfaction with the model and the opportunity to share their thoughts openly.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of self-management strategies as a means of reducing off-task and disruptive behaviors of elementary school children identified as emotionally disturbed or behavior disordered (E/BD). This study provided a practical approach for classroom teachers to implement self-management strategies in classes that include children identified as having E/BD. Five elementary school children who were formally evaluated and enrolled in a special education classroom for students with E/BD were selected to participate in the study. The study also examined the effects of the self-management procedures when targeted behaviors were monitored by peers. Four resource students from the regular education class served as peer monitors. An ABAB reversal design was used to assess the effectiveness of the self-management strategy in the special education classroom. A behavior rating scale was used at the beginning of the study to develop a baseline of student behavior and during the final phase of the intervention to measure progress. The data indicated that the self-management strategies decreased the levels off-task and disruptive behaviors for all participating students. The findings of this study substantiates previous research that suggests self-management techniques help student to manage their own behaviors.

Objective: This study sought to determine the factor structure of the newly developed self-report screening questionnaire Eating Disturbances in Youth-Questionnaire (EDY-Q) as well as to report the distribution of variants of early-onset restrictive eating disturbances characteristic of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) in a middle childhood population sample. Method: Using the EDY-Q, a total of 1444 children aged 8-13 years were screened in elementary schools in Switzerland via self-report. The factor analysis of the 12 items covering ARFID related symptoms was performed using a principal component analysis (PCA). Results: The PCA showed a four factor solution, with clear allocation to the scales covering three variants of early-onset restrictive eating disturbances and weight problems. Inadequate overall food intake was reported by 19.3% of the children, a limited accepted amount of food by 26.1%, and food avoidance based on a specific underlying fear by 5.0%. Discussion: The postulated factor structure of the EDY-Q was confirmed, further supporting the existence of distinct variants of early-onset restrictive eating disturbances. Avoidant/restrictive eating behavior seems to be a common experience in middle childhood, but results have to be confirmed using validated interviews.

This diploma thesis deals with life perspective problems of clients in Institutional Treatment Institut that are captured in their several personal narratives and subsequently processed by the method of narrative analysis. The diploma thesis is focused on the partial, lively, personal, unique and subjective experience of the clients in the Institutional Treatment Institut, aiming to understand their lives within contextual connections and to reflect their future life perspectives. The thesis has a theoretical-application character. The attention of the theoretical part is paid to problems of behavioral and emotional disorders, their classifications, causes and other contexts, as well as the topic of prevention and therapy of behavioral and emotional disorders, with the greatest attention being paid to institutional education. The author is also interested in the period of adolescence. The empirical part focuses on mapping the links between the experience of staying in the Institutional Treatment Institut and the current view of the own particular life perspectives of the survey participants, wheras among other things, the protagonist's changes in attitudes about education as a life value over time are accentuated. The method of narrative interview was applied as a research tool, which was mainly...

Objective: This study sought to determine the factor structure of the newly developed self-report screening questionnaire Eating Disturbances in Youth-Questionnaire (EDY-Q) as well as to report the distribution of variants of early-onset restrictive eating disturbances characteristic of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) in a middle childhood population sample. Method: Using the EDY-Q, a total of 1444 children aged 8-13 years were screened in elementary schools in Switzerland via self-report. The factor analysis of the 12 items covering ARFID related symptoms was performed using a principal component analysis (PCA). Results: The PCA showed a four factor solution, with clear allocation to the scales covering three variants of early-onset restrictive eating disturbances and weight problems. Inadequate overall food intake was reported by 19.3% of the children, a limited accepted amount of food by 26.1%, and food avoidance based on a specific underlying fear by 5.0%. Discussion: The postulated factor structure of the EDY-Q was confirmed, further supporting the existence of distinct variants of early-onset restrictive eating disturbances. Avoidant/restrictive eating behavior seems to be a common experience in middle childhood, but results have to be confirmed using validated interviews.