DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY OF THE DEVEREUX BEHAVIOR RATING SCALE-SCHOOL FORM FOR STUDENTS WITH SERIOUS EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE

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.