Intersections of Education and Resilience: How Contexts Operate in the Protection of At-Risk Adolescents.

The studies in this dissertation were designed to contribute to the literature on educational resilience by addressing the various mechanisms through which contexts could operate as protective factors for those at-risk both educationally and behaviorally during adolescence. The inclusion of multiple outcomes indicative of resilience has been suggested by other researchers who have found that adaptive outcomes are often present in one domain but absent in others (e.g. Luthar, Doernberger, & Zigler, 1993). The results from Study 1 indicated that sports participation serves a promotive function during adolescence, as participation was generally related to lower substance use and better academic outcomes in the 8th and 10th grades. However, different patterns emerged by grade and gender that suggest that the type and amount of participation matters when predicting pertinent outcomes. Study 2 focused on the leisure activities of high risk-takers in order to determine more and less adaptive patterns in terms of substance use and educational resilience. The findings from this study identified the following types of high risk-takers: Athletics Only, School Oriented, Uninvolved Users, Involved Users, Uninvolved Non-Users, and Club Members. These results supported the prediction that many high risk-takers demonstrated educational and behavioral resilience; the School Oriented and Club Member risk-takers reported the most resilient outcomes, whereas Uninvolved Users and Involved Users were the least resilient. Finally, Study 3 proposed model of the mediating effect of motivation on the relationship between teacher fairness and respect on achievement and compared the process and magnitude of such a model for students in traditional and alternative school settings. The results indicated that teacher fairness and respect and motivation are promotive for the educational outcomes of students in both settings. Motivation, however, was additionally protective for students in alternative schools as it was more strongly related to achievement outcomes for these students. Taken together, the results of these three studies provide information regarding the diversity of risks and protective processes at work during adolescence. This work contributes to an understanding of the complex mechanisms that operate in the study of educational resilience.Ph.D.Education & PsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63640/1/bammon_1.pd

Factor Structure and Differential Item Functioning of the BASC-2 BESS Spanish Language Parent Form

Given the steady increase of students from diverse backgrounds in the U.S. educational system, in particular immigrant and Latino students, it is important to consider how to best support all students within our schools. The present study focuses on the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Second Edition (BASC-2) Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS) Parent Spanish form, which is a promising assessment tool for those who are interested in screening for behavioral and emotional risk among Spanish-speaking populations. The present study included 725 students of Latino descent in Grades K-6 in an urban school district and their parents or legal guardians, who served as the informants. All parents completed the BESS language form (English or Spanish) of their choice. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported a 4-factor structure (Externalizing, Internalizing, Inattention, and Adaptive Skills) similar to that of the BESS Parent English form: χ2(77) = 248.06, p \u3c .001; CFI = 0.903; TLI = 0.940. However, differential item functioning (DIF) analyses revealed 5 items (16.7%) demonstrated significant levels of DIF, with 4 of the 5 being easier to endorse in English. This study provides preliminary evidence of partial invariance of the BESS Parent across language forms. Although some evidence of invariance across language forms at the structural and item levels exists, more research is necessary to determine whether the DIF found in the present study results in any perceptible test bias

Psychometric analysis of the BASC-2 behavioral and emotional screening system (BESS) student form: Results from high school student samples

The Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS) is a relatively new method for identifying behavior and emotional risk (BER) in children and adolescents. Psychometric evidence regarding this instrument is important for researchers and practitioners considering the use of the BESS for identifying BER in students. Previous psychometric research specifically regarding the BESS Student Form involved the use of samples of elementary and middle school-age children. This study adds to the psychometric evidence for scores on the BESS Student Form by using samples of high school aged students to assess both the factor structure reported by Dowdy, Twyford et al. (2011) and the measurement invariance of the BESS items with regard to ethnicity, English language proficiency, and socioeconomic status. The results indicate that while the proposed 4-factor structure of the BESS Student Form is appropriate, lower than preferred reliabilities for some of the factors indicates that reporting the overall risk T score is more appropriate than reporting factor scores for risk classification purposes. Additionally, the BESS Student Form items did not exhibit measurement bias when comparing across ethnicities, language proficiency classification, or socioeconomic status (via free/reduced lunch classification)

Surveillance of Middle and High School Mental Health Risk by Student Self-Report Screener

Introduction: A 2009 National Academies of Sciences report on child mental health prevention and treatment concluded that screening for mental health risk is an essential component of service delivery. To date, however, there are few practical assessments available or practices in place that measure individual child risk, or risk aggregated at the school or community level. This study examined the utility of a 30-item paper and pencil student self-report screener of behavioral and emotional risk (BER) for surveying community risk among 7 schools. Methods: In 2010, 2,222 students in 3 middle and 4 high schools in a medium-sized school district in Georgia were administered the Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Self-Report Child/Adolescent form (BESS Student). The BESS is designed to measure 4 sub-syndromal BER factors for developing mental health disorders: inattention/hyperactivity, internalizing, school problems, and personal adjustment. Analysis of Variance and Chi Square analyses were used to assess the association between adolescent self-reported BER as an indicator of school BER, grade level, child ethnic identification and gender, socioeconomic status, and special education placement status.Results: BESS scores differentiated well between schools for overall BER and special education status, as well as between grade levels, ethnicity, and gender groups. One high school, known by the school administration to have numerous incidents of student behavior problems, had the most deviant 4 BER domain scores of all 7 schools. Girls rated themselves as having a higher prevalence of BER (14%) than boys (12%); middle school students reported fewer difficulties than high school students.Conclusion: Middle and high school students were capable of identifying significant differences in their own BER across schools, suggesting that universal mental health risk screening viastudent self-report is potentially useful for identifying aggregated community risk in a given school that may warrant differential deployment of mental health prevention and intervention strategies. BESS results reliably identified individual mental health risk associated with special education placement, which is documented to lead to poor school outcomes such as school dropout and lack of enrollment in post-secondary education. [West J Emerg Med. 2013;14(4):384–390.

Surveillane of Middle and High School Mental Health Risk by Student Self-Report Screener

Introduction: A 2009 National Academies of Sciences report on child mental health prevention and treatment concluded that screening for mental health risk is an essential component of service delivery. To date, however, there are few practical assessments available or practices in place that measure individual child risk, or risk aggregated at the school or community level. This study examined the utility of a 30-item paper and pencil student self-report screener of behavioral and emotional risk (BER) for surveying community risk among 7 schools. Methods: In 2010, 2,222 students in 3 middle and 4 high schools in a medium-sized school district in Georgia were administered the Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Self-Report Child/Adolescent form (BESS Student). The BESS is designed to measure 4 sub-syndromal BER factors for developing mental health disorders: inattention/hyperactivity, internalizing, school problems, and personal adjustment. Analysis of Variance and Chi Square analyses were used to assess the association between adolescent self-reported BER as an indicator of school BER, grade level, child ethnic identification and gender, socioeconomic status, and special education placement status.Results: BESS scores differentiated well between schools for overall BER and special education status, as well as between grade levels, ethnicity, and gender groups. One high school, known by the school administration to have numerous incidents of student behavior problems, had the most deviant 4 BER domain scores of all 7 schools. Girls rated themselves as having a higher prevalence of BER (14%) than boys (12%); middle school students reported fewer difficulties than high school students.Conclusion: Middle and high school students were capable of identifying significant differences in their own BER across schools, suggesting that universal mental health risk screening viastudent self-report is potentially useful for identifying aggregated community risk in a given school that may warrant differential deployment of mental health prevention and intervention strategies. BESS results reliably identified individual mental health risk associated with special education placement, which is documented to lead to poor school outcomes such as school dropout and lack of enrollment in post-secondary education. [West J Emerg Med. 2013;14(4):384-390.

Predictive validity of a student self-report screener of behavioral and emotional risk in an urban high school

Increasingly, schools are implementing school-based screening for risk of behavioral and emotional problems; hence, foundational evidence supporting the predictive validity of screening instruments is important to assess. This study examined the predictive validity of the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Student Form (BESS Student) in the authentic context of an urban high school that conducted universal screening over 3 years. Multivariate regression, sensitivity, specificity, and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to examine the BESS Student scores\u27 prediction of internalizing symptoms. BESS Student scores were able to explain a significant proportion of the variance in internalizing symptoms concurrently, but predictive validity estimates decreased over time. Significant gender differences were present; BESS Student scores were better able to predict internalizing symptoms for females. Implications for research and practice involving screening for behavioral and emotional problems are discussed