Identification of Child Behavioral and Emotional Risk at School: A Latent Class Approach

• In Event: Psychometric Issues in Assessment in the Schools

Abstract

The BASC-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System was designed to determine behavioral and emotional status in children and adolescents for the screening purposes and were analyzed via factor analysis to examine the match of the factor structure. Factor analysis requires all variables to be continuous and uses the assumption of multivariate normality. The latent class model is most appropriate when response variables are based on discrete latent traits. The purposes of this study are: First, we assessed the factor structures of the BESS Teacher Form, using latent class analysis. Second, we tested for the assumption of monotonicity of the items. Third, we explored the dimensionality issue among four constructs occurs to determine if ordered latent classes could be validly derived.

Authors

• Randy William Kamphaus

• Jisung Cha, Georgia State University