Clayton R. Cook

Social skills training for children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders: Validity considerations and future directions

This article provides an analysis of the current knowledge base of social skills training (SST) with students with, or at risk for, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD). This knowledge base is evaluated with respect to issues regarding construct, internal, external, and social validity of the SST literature. Research syntheses investigating construct validity suggest that the three domains of social interaction, prosocial behavior, and social-cognitive skills adequately represent the social skills construct. Internal validity analyses based on the results of six meta-analyses suggested that SST is an effective intervention strategy for students with EBD, showing a 64% improvement rate relative to controls using the Binomial Effect Size Display. External validity analyses showed that SST is effective across a broad range of behavioral difficulties, such as aggression externalizing behaviors, internalizing behaviors, and antisocial behavior patterns. Some weaknesses were noted in the social validity of SST outcome measures, and recommendations are made for improvement in this area. Overall, SST is an effective and essential part of a comprehensive intervention program for students with EBD.

Social skills training for secondary students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders: A review and analysis of the meta-analytic literature

Secondary students with or at risk for emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) can be characterized as having severe deficits in social competence. Moreover, as students transition into the secondary grades, social competence takes on increased complexity and importance. Social skills training (SST) represents a class of interventions routinely implemented with secondary-age students identified as EBD as a means of improving their social competence. What is unknown, however, is whether the evidence base supports the use of SST for this particular subset of students. The purpose of this research was to synthesize the meta-analytic literature evaluating the efficacy of SST for secondary students with EBD. Results from this analysis indicate that SST produces improvements in two thirds of secondary students with EBD, compared to only one third of controls. The results from this analysis are interpreted in light of opposing opinions regarding the efficacy of SST for secondary students with EBD.

Social Skills Training for Teaching Replacement Behaviors: Remediating Acquisition Deficits in At-Risk Students.

Social skills training has been recommended as an intervention for students having difficulty establishing meaningful social relationships with peers and teachers in school settings. Several meta-analyses of the relevant literature have shown weak to moderate effects, whereas other syntheses have shown somewhat larger effects. The meta-analyses show that the typical social skills intervention averages 2.5–3.0 hours per week for 10–12 weeks for a total of approximately 30 hours, which may be insufficient to remediate long-standing social skills deficits. The current study identified students who were homogenous on the type of social skills deficit (i.e., acquisition deficits) and provided them with intense (60 hours) social skills training and classroom-based interventions. Students receiving intense social skills instruction showed rather large decreases in competing problem behaviors that were maintained at two-month follow-up and that were socially validated by substantial pretest/posttest changes in teacher ratings of social skills and competing problem behaviors.

Educational Characteristics of Adolescents with Gifted Academic Intrinsic Motivation: A Longitudinal Investigation from School Entry through Early Adulthood.

The construct of gifted motivation was examined in a contemporary, long-term, longitudinal investigation. Adolescents with extremely high academic intrinsic motivation (i.e., gifted motivation) were compared to their cohort peer comparison on a variety of educationally relevant measures from elementary school through the early adulthood years. Assessment of academic intrinsic motivation was based on the Children’s Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. Cross-time, pervasive differences resulted favoring the gifted motivation compared to the cohort comparison group on motivation, achievement, classroom functioning, intellectual performance, self-concept, and postsecondary educational progress. Meaningful effect sizes were obtained and corroborated by teachers’ observations. Gifted motivation proved to be distinct from gifted intelligence. This research serves to expand the definition of giftedness to include the construct of gifted motivation in its own right. These findings have implications for identifying students with gifted motivation for entry into programs for the gifted.

Constructing a Roadmap for Future Universal Screening Research Beyond Academics

The majority of the literature on universal screening in education is devoted to academic screeners. However, research clearly indicates that other aspects of student functioning are closely associated with outcomes inside and outside of school. As a result, there are gaps in the current literature that call for additional research extending beyond academics to explore the development and use of other screening tools to better detect students who are at risk for difficulties. Consistent with the purpose of this special series, the aim of this article is to establish a roadmap for future research on universal screening efforts beyond academic domains. The following six themes were integrated into a roadmap that will serve as a guide for future research directed at improving the accuracy, feasibility, effectiveness, and breadth of screening practices in education: (a) universal screening research across multiple domains; (b) determination of the optimal informant; (c) linking screening results to problem-solving efforts; (d) moderators of universal screening outcomes; (e) cost-benefit analyses involving technical adequacy, classification accuracy, and feasibility; and (f) the application of advanced measurement and statistical procedures. These themes represent the foci of the current special issue.

Risk and Protective Factors of Emotional and/or Behavioral Disorders in Children and Adolescents: A Mega-Analytic Synthesis.

Professionals working with children who have severe emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) need to understand the risk and protective factors (RPFs) that are correlated with the development of these behavior patterns, for at least 3 reasons. First, significant numbers of students experience negative outcomes or fail to achieve positive outcomes. Second, current policy imperatives dictate a consideration of RPFs as preventive strategies. Finally, a consideration of RPFs affects childrens response to intervention. The question posed in this research has three parts: (a) Can RPFs be identified? (b) Can the contexts in which the factors arise be identified? (c) Can the magnitude of the relationships between RPFs and associated outcomes be quantified? The current synthesis examined the findings of multiple meta-analyses and considered a broad range of RPFs across multiple contexts.

A Model for Predicting the Presence of School Psychology: An International Examination of Sociocultural, Sociopolitical and Socioeconomic Influences.

School psychology exists in many countries around the world; however, it is far from ubiquitous. The extant literature offers limited empirical information addressing why school psychology may be present in some countries but not in others. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative investigation examining four sociocultural and sociopolitical theories that may help to explain the presence of school psychology within countries around the globe. The results from this study examining 108 different countries revealed that although the socioeconomic development of a country is an important explanatory factor of the presence of school psychology, it does not fully explain the presence of school psychology. Specifically, variables measuring a country’s modern mass cultural values and legacy of expenditures on social programs were independently predictive of the presence of school psychology. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.

Exploring the Link Among Behavior Intervention Plans, Treatment Integrity, and Student Outcomes Under Natural Educational Conditions:

Several researchers have argued that the functional behavior assessment (FBA) and behavior intervention plan (BIP) mandates in the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 2004 have gone beyond the current research base. For instance, although BIPs have been shown to improve student outcomes when implemented with strict control and oversight by researchers, it is unclear whether these relationships hold true when implemented under real educational conditions. The purpose of this research was to conduct an initial study evaluating the relationship among the evidence-based quality of federally mandated BIPs, treatment integrity, and student outcomes under real-world educational conditions free from the help of researchers. Results indicated that the evidence-based quality of BIPs was significantly related to positive student outcomes. Results also supported the role of treatment integrity as a mediator of the relationship between the evidence-based quality of BIPs and student outcomes. The implications and limitations of this research as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Development and Validation of the Student Internalizing Behavior Screener: Examination of Reliability, Validity, and Classification Accuracy:

Students with internalizing behavior patterns are often overlooked and underserved in schools, which is problematic in that they are at risk for a host of negative outcomes. As a result, there is a need for universal screening procedures to proactively detect students with these behavior patterns and to provide them with early, ongoing supports. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability, validity, and classification accuracy of the Student Internalizing Behavior Screener using a sample of elementary-age students. The results indicated that the screener demonstrated adequate evidence of reliability and validity. Results also revealed an optimal cutoff score to maximize accurate hits and minimize diagnostic errors, and they demonstrated that the screener was able to identify a unique group of behaviorally and emotionally at-risk students. The implications of the results are discussed, as well as the directions for future research on screening practices for students with internalizing behavior patterns.

An integrated approach to universal prevention: Independent and combined effects of PBIS and SEL on youths' mental health.

Mental health among children and adolescents is a growing national concern and schools have taken center stage in efforts to prevent problems and promote wellness. Although research and policymakers support the integration of mental health services into the schools, there is limited agreement on the ways to package or combine existing supports to achieve prevention-oriented goals. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) are 2 of the most widely adopted, evidence-based approaches that have been advocated to address student mental health. These universal prevention approaches, however, stem from different theoretical camps and are often advocated and implemented apart from one another. The purpose of this study was to examine the independent and combined effects of PBIS and SEL on student mental health outcomes. A quasi-randomized control design at the classroom level was used to make comparisons across 4 conditions: business-as-usual (BAU), PBIS alone, SEL alone, and COMBO condition with regard to their acceptability to teachers, integrity of program delivery, and student outcomes. As predicted, the COMBO condition produced significantly greater improvements in overall mental health and reductions in externalizing behaviors when compared to all other conditions. The results also indicated that the PBIS- and SEL-only conditions were both able to produce significant improvements in overall mental health functioning as compared with the BAU control. The implications of an integrated approach for school-based universal prevention and directions for future research are discussed.