The Effect of Timing of Second-Gate Administration on Correlations Between First- and Second-Gate Measures of Behavioral and Emotional Risk in K-12 Students

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlations between items on a student self-report screener for emotional and behavioral risk at gate 1 (BESS Student Form) and the same items on a self-report comprehensive measure of behavior and emotions at gate 2 (BASC-2 SRP) as a function of the timing of the administration of the gate 2 comprehensive measure.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
The Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS) Student Form (Kamphaus & Reynolds, 2007) is a self-report screener for assessing the behavioral and emotional risk of children ages 8 to 19. Using a public health-based intervention model, the BESS can be used as a “first gate” assessment to identify students who have elevated risk. In our research, the BASC-2 Self Report of Personality (BASC-2 SRP; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004) is generally used as the “second gate” assessment. The results of the BASC-2 SRP are used for decision making with regards to what prevention strategy is appropriate for each student with elevated risk and to rule out false positives at gate 1. The timing of this second gate administration has not been studied in terms of the effect on the correlation between the items on the BESS that are also used in the BASC-2 SRP.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Correlation analysis will be used to estimate the relationship between each item on the BESS that also appears on the BASC-2 SRP. The items on the BESS are based on a 4-point Likert scale. Since the data are ordinal in nature, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient will be used. Fisher’s z-test for transformed correlations will be used to determine if there is a significant difference between the correlations for each item. To control for the number of hypothesis tests, a more conservative level of significance (.001) will be used.

Author

• Leigh M. Harrell-Williams, Georgia State University