A cross validation study of the effectiveness of three behavior rating scales in identifying difficulties in primary school children

Leonard, Theresa Marie. (1979) A cross validation study of the effectiveness of three behavior rating scales in identifying difficulties in primary school children. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study was initiated to investigate the usefulness of teacher completed behavior rating scales as a means of detecting high and low risk students. The study also sought to find out which, if any, scale best demonstrated potential risk of school difficulties in primary school age children. The three behavior rating scales chosen for this exploration were: the AML Behavior Rating Scale by Van Vleet (1970), the Children's Behavior Questionnaire by Rutter (1967), and the Devereaux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale by Spivack and Swift (1967). All behavior rating scales were compared with the Wide Range Achievement Test by Jastak and Jastak (1978). Two groups of subjects were studied firstly as a total group and then as subgroups of the total group. -- Subjects were categorized into high and low risk firstly by teacher ranking of the likelihood of school difficulties and secondly by level of reading achievement as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test. -- The scores of the three behavior rating scales and the Wide Range Achievement Test were statistically analyzed using Pearson and Kendal's Tau correlation coefficients and a one way and two way analysis of variance. -- The results indicated that all three bheavior rating scales correlate highly with one another, with teacher rank, as well as with scores of the Wide Range Achievement Test. These findings suggest that these three behavior rating scales can differentiate between groups of high and low risk students, split by teacher rank as well as by reading achievement. -- Results of this research generally suggest that, firstly, these three behavior rating scales are useful devices for detecting children who are likely to have school difficulties, secondly, no one scale is better than another, and thirdly, the three behavior rating scales can be used by the teacher to detect high and low risk children.

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