De. Sanders et al., Internalizing symptoms and affect of children with emotional and behavioral disorders: A comparative study with an urban African American sample, PSYCHOL SCH, 36(3), 1999, pp. 187-197
Self-reported internalizing symptoms of seriously emotionally disturbed (SE
D) and regular education students in grades 4-6 were compared using the Int
ernalizing Symptoms Scale for Children. All participants were African Ameri
can and from an urban public school district in the Southeastern United Sta
tes. Each of the two study groups consisted of 50 participants (35 boys, 15
girls) who were matched by gender and socioeconomic status. The SED group
reported significantly higher levels of internalizing distress than the reg
ular education group. In contrast to previous findings, there was no signif
icant gender difference in self-reported internalizing symptomatology in th
e present study. A discriminant function analysis found that the ISSC score
s were able to correctly classify 91% of the participants into their respec
tive educational group. Results of this study provide additional evidence o
f the construct validity of the ISSC, a recently developed and unique self-
report measure. Results are discussed in terms of future research needs and
educational/clinical practice with students who have emotional and behavio
ral disorders. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.