Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-94).

This study explored potential patterns of association among the demographic characteristics, identification practices, educational interventions, and educational outcomes for students with serious emotional disturbance (SED) as well as specifically investigated the impact of age at identification with SED and the presence of co-occurring disabilities. Data was gathered from the educational records of students with SED in seven rural to semi-rural districts in Texas. Demographic information included gender, ethnicity, age at identification with SED, and identification with co-occurring disabilities. Identification variables that were investigated include the five federal qualifying criteria for SED, IQ score, and BASC and/or CBCL scores. Intervention variables that were explored included placement setting, restrictiveness of placement setting, type of related services provided, parental attendance at multidisciplinary team meetings, number of multidisciplinary team meetings, and total time spent in special education as a student with SED. Outcome variables that were examined included achievement levels in reading and math, attendance, special education status, and grade retention. Results suggested that earlier identification with SED is related to placement in less restrictive settings, achievement within two years of grade level in reading, and lower average number of absences. The presence of co-occurring disabilities in addition to SED is associated with placement in more restrictive settings and with achievement that is two or more years below grade level in reading and math. Additional findings and implications for future research as well as for current practice are discussed.

This study examined the relationship between performance in a leveled token economy for emotionally disturbed adolescents and posttreatment level of functioning six months after discharge from the target program. The target program for the study is an acute care psychiatric hospital which specialized in the treatment of adolescents with both emotional and substance abuse problems. Previous literature on the outcome of token economy treatment programs however for they adolescents have generally been favorable have typically not examined level of functioning as an outcome criteria.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Not available / text

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of Educational Psychology

The number of children identified as emotionally disturbed has been increasing. The success rate for these children has been disappointingly low in both their academic and post-academic lives. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between children identified as emotionally disturbed and their families, and to recommend strategies and family services that could increase the success rate of this particular population.Information was obtained from two self-report instruments, FACES II and a Personal Information Questionnaire, and from social-developmental histories and psychoeducational evaluations. The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale (FACES II) is a 30-item, self-report instrument that scores a family's view of flexibility and cohesion on the Circumplex Model grid. The Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems is a family typology that is based on the family's degree of flexibility and cohesion. The Personal Information Questionnaire was a demographic instrument used to obtain marital status and economic factors. Grade levels and incidents of child abuse were obtained from social-developmental histories and psychoeducational evaluations.Data were collected from families with children identified as emotionally disturbed. A total of twenty-seven children, ages eight to eighteen, and one parent of each child were included in the study (N = 54). Responses to FACES II and items on the questionnaire were analyzed usingchi-square analysis.Seventy-four percent of the families were classified as dysfunctional based on their responses to FACES II. Less than half of these families rated as disengaged on the cohesion level and more than half of these families rated as rigid on the flexibility level. The school levels of these children were also significant. A higher percentage of families with children in high school were dysfunctional as compared with families with children in elementary school. Parent relational status was not significant. The functional level of the family was not affected if the parents were married, divorced, or widowed. A relationship did exist between families with children identified as emotionally disturbed and reported incidents of child abuse. The dysfunctional families had a higher rate of reported child abuse while those families who were more balanced had fewer reported incidents of child abuse. Finally, socioeconomic status was not a factor in the functional level of the families.Findings from this study may assist school personnel when providing services for children identified as emotionally disturbed and their families. Teachers of students who are emotionally disturbed and general education teachers who will service these students require an accurate understanding of the etiological factors associated with the development of a child identified as emotionally disturbed. By assessing the family's specific areas of strength and weaknesses, school and community services could be provided to meet the needs of the families and their children. / Department of Special Education

Previous empirical studies have been inconsistent in the identification of cognitive differences between LD and EH children on psychoeducational assessment batteries. Furthermore, studies using multivariate procedures such as discriminant analysis have failed to verify the basic underlying assumption of homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices of the groups. Homogeneity of covariance can be assessed by comparing factor structures of the two groups.The purpose of this study was to investigate the cognitive differences between LD and EH children on a psychoeducational assessment battery Including the WISC-R, WRAT, PIAT, PPVT, and DVMI, typically used to identify the two exceptionalities. Differences In factor structures were investigated in an effort to clarify group differences in cognitive functioning, and to investigate the utility of multivariate analyses such as discriminant analysis with these two groups of children.The subjects were 1165 public school children, aged 6 to 16, referred for assessment and subsequently classified and served in special LD and EH programs. Four and five factor solutions were compared using the congruence coefficient to determine statistical similarities. The first three factors of each solution, Verbal Concepts, Verbal Achievement, and Visual Perceptual Reasoning, were found to be statistically similar in construct and interpretation. These results suggest that If the use of multivariate procedures in studying LD and EH group differences is limited to cognitive performance in the areas of verbal concepts, reading and spelling achievement, and visual perceptual reasoning skills, the results can be accepted as valid. The discriminant analysis would not likely be violating the homogeneity assumption.Differences were found in factor structures Involving the order of the factors extracted in terms of importance In explaining variance. Also, statistically significant differences were found between the factors Involving Math, Visual Motor, and Sequential skills, suggesting that multivariate analyses using these factors would likely violate the homogeneity assumption.Results indicate the presence of heterogeneity in the matrices of LD and EH children, and suggest caution in the interpretation of multivariate statistical analyses with these children. Violation of the assumption of homogeneity can invalidate statistical findings and their application to the study of group differences.

The present study investigated the use of the Maternal Perinatal Scale (MPS) as an instrument for predicting group membership among normal versus emotionally handicapped children. An examination of neurological symptoms as they relate to specific behavioral factors within the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was conducted, as well as an investigation of the relationship between factors within the MPS as predictors of specific behaviors within the CBCL. Subjects included 119 EH students and 211 normal subjects with a mean age of 10 years, 3 months. Samples were collected from a suburban midwestern area of approximately 800,000 population.Results of discriminant analyses indicated that the MPS items were able to predict group membership with 85.5% accuracy when the mother's history was included and 88.2% when the Childhood Checklist was added as additional data. Out of 66 possible factors, 22 yielded correlations which were significant at the .01 level.A significant relationship between the total number of neurological symptoms observed in a child and the degree of behavioral deviance as reported with the CBCL was an outstanding feature of this study. Nine of ten factors on the CBCL were correlated with the total NSI score at the .01 level of significance, with Attention Problems demonstrating the greatest degree of relationship. Canonical analysis of the MPS factors as predictors of specific CBCL subscales yielded vague results. Although several correlations were significant, the pattern of variance provided a minimal degree of interpretive utility.Future research stemming from these results would include further examination of the nature of relationships between perinatal factors and mother's history, as well as the incorporation of strategies to provide early intervention to infants and children at risk for future placement in the EH category. The MPS appears to offer promise as a tool for bringing consistency and replicability into the area of perinatal research, as well as serving to assist in the early identification of at-risk children. The prospect of predicting specific behavioral factors from perinatal variables continues to be a viable direction for future study. / Department of Educational Psychology