Identifying and Assessing Community-based Social Behavior of Adolescents and Young Adults with EBD

Abstract

Adolescents and young adults (ages 15 to 25) with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) experience difficulties living in society in large part because of social skill deficits in interacting with peers and adults. Our research first identified and described community-based social behaviors for persons with EBD by following the behavioral analytic model, then used this information to develop measures of these behaviors. Three measures were developed: male and female forms of the Test of Community-based Social Skill Knowledge (TCSK), the Scale of Community-based Social Skill Performance (CBSP), and Behaviors That Are Undesirable for Living and Leisure in Society (BULLIS). In the TCSK, the young person is presented with a number of social interactions between peers or adults and four alternative responses of varying effectiveness to each interaction. The young person then states which alternative is most like what he or she would do if involved in such a situation. The CBSP is a behavior-rating scale completed by a person knowledgeable about the individual's social skill performance in community placements. The BULLIS is a self-report measure of antisocial behaviors that is administered individually. The measures were field-tested, and psychometric analyses were conducted. These results generally were acceptable, demonstrating adequate reliabilities and discriminant power to differentiate between persons with and without EBD.