Screening Children With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders In Elementary Schools

Abstract

The aim of this study is threefold: a. to investigate the psychometric characteristics of the Turkish Form of Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS-T) that was developed to determine the risk students for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), b. to examine whether the SRSS scores of the students change according to the gender and grade levels, and c. to determine the elementary school students at high-risk group for emotional and behavioral problems based on SRSS scores. 108 teachers from 10 public elementary school administrated the SRSS for 2378 students. According to results of the analyses, the Turkish Form of the instrument has good validity and reliability, similar to the original form and the percentage of high-risk students in elementary school was approximately 6%. Total score and externalizing score of the boys and internalizing behaviors of girls were significantly higher than that of the others. In addition, total and subscale scores of 4th graders were higher than the scores of remaining of the groups. Results were discussed in terms of literature, limitation of the study was explained and recommendations for future studies were presented.