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Assessing Validity of a Screener for Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Concerns: Analyzing Gender Differences in a Middle School Population

Systematic screening for social, emotional, and behavioral concerns (SEBC) identifies at-risk students and provides information to guide interventions that may prevent negative outcomes (Glover & Albers, 2006; Kauffman, 1999; Severson, Walker, Hope-Dolittle, Katochwill, & Gresham, 2007). However, the screening process may be influenced by the gender of the student (Young, Sabbah, Young, Reiser, & Richardson, 2010). This study further examined the influence of student gender on screening by assessing the congruency of gates one and two of a screening process based on student gender. Participants included 59 middle school teachers who nominated at-risk students on the Teacher Nomination Form (TNF; Davis, 2012) and then completed the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BASC-2 BESS; Kamphaus & Reynolds, 2007) on each nominated student. A two-tailed z-score was calculated to see if the TNF predicted BASC-2 BESS T-scores better for one gender over the other. A z score of -0.63 (p > .05) was obtained in the internalizing category and a z score of 0.39 (p > .05) was obtained in the externalizing category; the difference between correlation coefficients for males and females was not statistically significant. While more males were nominated than females in both the internalizing and externalizing categories, the screening instrument does not measure differently for males and females according to the data analysis provided here. Disproportionate identification of males and females in the screening process may be explained by other factors that could be the focus of additional research.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BGMYU2/oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-6532
Date01 June 2015
CreatorsLowe, Kimberly
PublisherBYU ScholarsArchive
Source SetsBrigham Young University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations
Rightshttp://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

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