Debbie S. Brooks

Bullying Involvement and the School Adjustment of Rural Students With and Without Disabilities

Bullying involvement status (i.e., bully, victim, bully–victim) and school adjustment were examined in a sample of 1,389 fifth graders (745 female, 644 male) including 145 special education students who were served in general education classrooms for at least 50% of the day. The sample was drawn from 35 rural schools in seven states across all geographic areas of the United States. School adjustment difficulties including internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were most pronounced in students who were identified as bully–victims (students who were identified as both victims and perpetrators of bullying). In contrast, bullies tended to have more positive interpersonal characteristics and fewer negative ones than youth who were identified as victims or bully–victims. Furthermore, compared to their nondisabled peers, students who received special education services had elevated rates of involvement as victims and bully–victims, but not as bullies. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Externalizing and Internalizing Behavior Problems, Peer Affiliations, and Bullying Involvement Across the Transition to Middle School

Continuity and change in children’s involvement in bullying was examined across the transition to middle school in relation to externalizing and internalizing behavior problems in fifth grade and peer affiliations in fifth and sixth grades. The sample consisted of 533 students (223 boys, 310 girls) with 72% European American, 25% African American, and 3% Other. Although externalizing and internalizing behavior problems in fifth grade were related to bullying involvement in sixth grade, the prediction of stability and desistance in bullying and victimization status was enhanced by information about students’ peer group trajectories. Furthermore, peer group trajectories uniquely explained the emergence of bullying and victimization in middle school.

Directed Consultation, the SEALS Model, and Teachers' Classroom Management.

Directed consultation is presented as a professional development framework to guide and support teachers in the implementation of evidence-based interventions that involve contextual and process-oriented approaches designed to be incorporated into daily classroom management. This approach consists of four components: pre-intervention observations and interviews with school professionals, professional development workshops, online training modules, and team- and individual-level implementation meetings. In the current study, directed consultation was used to train sixth-grade teachers to use the Supporting Early Adolescent Learning and Social Support (SEALS) program, a multicomponent intervention model, to promote productive and supportive classroom contexts during the transition to middle school. The current report involved classroom observations in 14 schools (7 interventions, 7 controls) as part of a broader cluster-randomized control trial. A total of 144 classrooms were observed in late fall of the sixth grade during ongoing professional development training activities and again in the spring at the completion of the SEALS training. As compared with control classrooms, teachers in intervention classrooms used more positive feedback and less negative feedback and redirection. Furthermore, teachers in intervention classrooms provided more effective use of classroom structure, feedback to students, behavior management, communication with students, groups and social dynamics, and motivation strategies. Results are discussed in terms of implications for professional development activities aimed at enhancing classroom management.

Special Educators as Intervention Specialists: Dynamic Systems and the Complexity of Intensifying Intervention for Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.

We present a dynamic systems perspective for the intensification of interventions for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). With this framework, we suggest behavior involves the contributions of multiple factors and reflects the interplay between the characteristics of the student and the ecologies in which he or she is embedded. Building from a discussion of the application of dynamic systems theory to ecological intervention, we propose four types of data are needed to guide intervention intensification: universal/probabilistic knowledge and strategies, implementation science practice elements, person-oriented developmental analysis, and person-in-context interactional analyses. We discuss practice implications and propose two types of specialists: intervention specialists who provide direct services and have expertise adapting interventions across the academic, behavioral, and social domains and intervention specialist coordinators who direct intervention intensification activities across service sectors and design and monitor long-term intervention plans focused on developmentally relevant outcomes. Finally, we consider implications for research and professional development.

Intensive Interventions for Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Issues, Theory, and Future Directions

Behavioral, emotional, and social problems are a ubiquitous feature of childhood. At some point in development, nearly all youth experience circumstances and contexts where they do not seem to fit, have difficulty controlling their emotions and impulses, and struggle to regulate their behavior with others. Epidemiological studies suggest that more than 30% of youth experience a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) level difficulty during childhood or adolescence (Forness, Freeman, Paparella, Kauffman, & Walker, 2012). For some youth, the manifestation of disorder is transitory (Costello, Foley, & Angold, 2006). For example, prevalence rates of special education identification for Emotional and Behavioral Disorder (EBD) depend on whether estimates reflect single or cumulative time points (Forness et al., 2012). With appropriate supports, many youth who have momentary emotional and behavioral problems will go on to experience adequate adjustment and positive outcomes. Nonetheless, current estimates suggest that a significant proportion of youth—between 5% and 13%—experience serious and sustained or recurring adjustment difficulties that constrain their future adaptation (Casanueva et al., in press). The focus of this special issue is on youth for whom EBD is a chronic condition or a condition that seriously impairs present academic, behavioral, emotional, and social functioning at the risk of negatively affecting important adolescent and early adulthood outcomes. More specifically, this issue focuses on those students for whom long-term, intensive intervention will be required. At any given time, approximately 1% of school-aged children receive services for EBD (Forness et al., 2012). A high proportion of youth who receive services for EBD have relatively low academic grades, poor social skills, and high rates of suspension as compared with students in other disability categories and nondisabled youth (Bradley, Henderson, & Monfore, 2004). Compared with students in other disability areas and nondisabled youth, students with EBD and learning disabilities have higher rates of truancy (Chen, Culhane, Metraux, Park, & Venable, 2015) and students with EBD are also more likely to experience out of home placements and involvement with other child service sectors (Chen et al., 2016). Furthermore, youth with EBD are more likely to have lower rates of high school completion, post-secondary education, and independent living, and higher rates of unemployment, arrest, and parole and probation than youth in the general population (Wagner & Newman, 2012). However, it should be noted that youth who have similar academic, behavioral, and social risks as youth with EBD, but who are not necessarily identified for EBD special education services, also experience poor outcomes such as school dropout, substance use, and criminality (Janosz, Le Blanc, Boulerice, & Tremblay, 2000; Lipsey & Derzon, 1998; Walker & Sprague, 1999) and are in need of intensive intervention. Problematic outcomes of youth with EBD are not manifested in a vacuum. Rather, they reflect correlated constraints. Youth develop as an integrated whole with behavioral, biophysical, cognitive, psychological, and sociological variables operating together to contribute to individual functioning (Farmer, Gatzke-Kopp, Lee, Dawes, & Talbott, 2016). This means that problematic outcomes, including school failure, school dropout, involvement in substance use, criminality, and adolescent and early adulthood mental health disorders, tend to reflect a system of correlated or interconnected factors (Bergman, Andershed, & Andershed, 2009; Cairns & Cairns, 1994; Cicchetti & Toth, 2009). The importance of correlated constraints for 661498 EBXXXX10.1177/1063426616661498Journal of Emotional and Behavioral DisordersMaggin et al. research-article2016

Recasting the Ecological and Developmental Roots of Intervention for Students with Emotional and Behavior Problems: The Promise of Strength-Based Perspectives

In working with children and adolescents with or at-risk of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), it is easy to become focused on the problems that they display. However, in recent years researchers and practitioners have distinguished between strategies that center on the reduction of problem behavior and strategies that emphasize teaching and reinforcing positive behaviors (Sugai, 2007). In addition to the work in positive behavioral supports, several conceptual models (e.g., competence promotion, resilience and positive psychology, and positive youth development) have been proposed that share a common perspective. Namely, that the path to productive behavioral adjustment rests in building on existing strengths in high-risk students and promoting their development of new competencies and relationships that enhance their long-term adaptation (e.g., Bierman et al., 2008; Morrison, Brown, D’Incau, O’Farrell, & Furlong, 2006). As a result, new approaches in the assessment and treatment of behavior disorders have emerged that blend strength-based perspectives with early intervention, positive behavioral support, and multi-factored prevention frameworks. Accordingly, the purpose of this special issue is to present a range of complementary perspectives on strength-based practices that link behavioral adaptation from early childhood through adolescence and that span assessment, early intervention, treatment, and prevention.

Classroom Social Dynamics Management: Why the Invisible Hand of the Teacher Matters for Special Education:

The invisible hand is a metaphor that refers to teachers’ impact on the classroom peer ecology. Although teachers have the capacity to organize the classroom environment and activities in ways that contribute to students’ social experiences, their contributions are often overlooked in research on students’ peer relations and the development of social interventions. To address this, researchers have begun to focus on clarifying strategies to manage classroom social dynamics. The goal of this article is to consider potential contributions of this perspective for understanding the social experiences of students with disabilities and to explore associated implications for the delivery of classroom-focused interventions to support their adaptation. Conceptual foundations of classroom social dynamics management and empirical research on the peer relationships of students with disabilities are outlined and the potential of the concept of the invisible hand is discussed in relation to other social support interventions for students with disabilities.