Agreement of Functional Behavioral Assessment and Analysis Methods with Students with EBD

Abstract

Recent years have seen a steady increase in empirical studies of the application of functional behavioral assessment procedures with students with EBD. However, many questions remain concerning efficacy and validity with this population. The present study involves the application of several indirect and direct functional behavioral assessment procedures (e.g., questionnaires, direct observation, analog analyses) with 20 students identified as having EBD. The results of the different methods were compared via descriptive and statistical analyses and indicated that although there was some agreement between certain categories of assessment methods, the indirect methods generally demonstrated poor agreement with the results of the functional analyses. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.