Ja. Naglieri et al., DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY OF THE DEVEREUX BEHAVIOR RATING SCALE-SCHOOL FORM FOR STUDENTS WITH SERIOUS EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE, School psychology review, 24(1), 1995, pp. 104-111
A sample of 366 students, 184 in regular education and 182 in special
education settings for students with serious emotional disturbance (SE
D), was rated by teachers using the new Devereux Behavior Rating Scale
-School Form. The entire sample was divided into four groups: regular
education and those children with SED age 5-12 (N = 224) and the same
groups of youth age 13-18 (N = 140). The SED and regular education sam
ples were matched on age, race, sex, and Hispanic origin. The Devereux
Behavior Rating Scale-School Form mean Total Test standard scores ear
ned by the SED samples were significantly higher than those earned by
the regular education samples at both age levels. Analyses of the accu
racy of identification using a variety of cut-off scores was conducted
to determine the classification accuracy of the new scale. At a cut-o
ff score equal to one standard deviation above the mean (standard scor
e of 115) the Devereux Behavior Rating Scale-School Form correctly ide
ntified 76.7% and 74.3% of the samples of 5 to 12 and 13 to 18-year-ol
ds, respectively Implications of these and other findings are discusse
d.