Background: A common polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4, 5HTT) has been repeatedly shown to moderate the influence of childhood adversity and stressful life events on the development of psychopathology. Using data from the English and Romanian Adoptee Study, a prospective-longitudinal study of individuals (n = 125) exposed to…

Effective behavioral practices for students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) are critical. Students with E/BD are often served in alternative education (AE) settings due to behavior that cannot be supported in a typical school setting or due to court adjudication based on delinquent activity. Like other settings for students with E/BD,…

The present study will assess the effectiveness of a social emotional learning curriculum implemented in a Midwestern high school with special education students. The specific social emotional curriculum utilized at this particular school was organized and delivered by the school psychologists at the high school, based on the Strong Teens…

Introduction: Severe mood dysregulation and problems (SMP) in otherwise typically developing youth are recognized as an important mental health problem with a distinct set of clinical features, family history and neurocognitive characteristics. SMP in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have not previously been explored. Method: We…

Check In/Check Out (CICO) is a secondary tier intervention for those students who are not responsive to universal tier, school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports. The present study extended the implementation of CICO to six students with emotional and behavioral disorders in a residential facility whose behaviors were maintained…

By law, public schools need to exhaust all general education services prior to referral for special education services (IDEA, 1990). Unfortunately, many teachers are unaware of the pre-referral interventions they can employ to teach children displaying behavior problems. The review of literature focused on the following: (a) legislative history,…

Objective: Bullying is the act of intentionally and repeatedly causing harm to someone who has difficulty defending him- or herself, and is a relatively widespread school-age phenomenon. Being the victim of bullying is associated with a broad spectrum of emotional problems; however, not all children who are bullied go on to develop such problems.…

The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of the Class-Wide Function-related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) program, a group contingency intervention for whole classes, and for students with disruptive behaviors who are at risk for emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD). The CW-FIT program includes four elements designed from…

Although emotion(s) have been of long interest to humans, they have particularly captivated the attention of many people and scholarly disciplines in the last 20 years. This paper critiques mainstream psychology of emotions and in particular, what Daniel Goleman has labeled the "collective emotional crisis" of our times and its relationship with…

Systems of care can be used to help coordinate and direct resources both external and internal to a school, thereby providing critical supports for students with emotional and behavioral challenges that historically have not been available to educators. In this study, hierarchical linear modeling was used to longitudinally examine school…

For students with emotional disability (ED), school can be a stressful experience marked by disapproval, rejection, isolation, and shame. Staff serving these students in a large school district received Response Ability Pathways (RAP) training. This article summarizes positive impacts on behavior, as well as ongoing challenges in changing school…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the concurrent validity of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) in middle school using the Maze (MAZE); Oral Reading Fluency (ORF); and the "Woodcock-Johnson, Third Edition" (WJ-III), Passage Comprehension (WJ-PC) and Reading Fluency (WJ-RF)…

This article describes a Response to Intervention (RTI) model of service delivery implemented within a rural elementary school for students in kindergarten through fifth grade experiencing significant emotional and behavioral difficulties. A multi-tiered model is presented that includes school wide interventions in Tier 1, as well as a six…

This study investigates the use made of humour by teachers during classroom interventions with adolescent students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). Literature mentions the use of humour as a key tool in successful classroom interventions with students with SEBD and yet there is little quantified research on this topic.…

The numbers tell a grim story: By the time students with behavioral or emotional problems get to high school, they may be so alienated from adults or disruptive to their classmates that they simply drop out. According to a 2006 report from the U.S. Department of Education, the high school graduation rate for students identified as emotionally…