Evaluating Reliability of High School Students’ Functional Assessment Interview Responses

Abstract

For several decades, researchers have explored the efficacy of functional behavior assessments. Recent research has called for greater understanding of how student involvement may improve the functional behavior assessment. This may be particularly important in high school settings, because high school environments are often larger and more complex. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability of high school student responses to functional assessment interviews. Participants were ten special education teachers and their intervention specialists. Teachers and students were interviewed using a functional assessment interview to determine antecedents, behaviors, and consequences that commonly occurred at school. Then, the researcher collected direct observation data to determine whether the reported behaviors were verified through direct observation. Results indicated extremely low reliability coefficients for antecedent, behavior, and consequences as reported by the dyads. However, unique student responses were verified through direct observation for each of these variables, suggesting students report accurate information that may improve the efficacy of their functional behavior assessment. Authors discuss implications for research and practice.