The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA; L.eBuffe & Naglieri, 1999), a standardized
strength-based measure, was used with 125 kindergarten children from two different regions in
British Columbia to investigate the relationship between mother and teacher ratings of students’
strengths and behaviour problems. Results suggest that the level of agreement between mother
and teacher ratings for children’s strengths is similar to the level of agreement between mother
and teacher ratings for children’s problem behaviours. The level of agreement between motherreported
and teacher-reported scores was found to be low for all DECA scales and most DECA
items, with some differences found upon examination of the sample by gender. The findings
revealed three main trends: first, a higher degree of correspondence and a lower degree of
difference was found between mother and teacher ratings for the Self-Control scale and items,
compared to the other scales and items; second, a lower degree of correspondence and a higher
degree of difference was found between mother and teacher ratings for the Attachment scale and
items, compared to other scales and items; third, the level of agreement between mothers and
teachers ratings was higher for boys than for girls. These patterns of cross-informant
correspondences and differences are discussed in the context of the need for practitioners to
obtain rating information from both mothers and teachers, since each rater provides a unique
perspective. Furthermore, the importance of highlighting children’s strengths in the assessment
process is emphasized.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/5036 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Popovic, Jillian |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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