Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Assessment of Children and Adolescents

Book excerpt: Generally recognized as the standard work in its field, Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Assessment of Children and Adolescents is a comprehensive guide for conducting conceptually sound, culturally responsive, and ecologically oriented assessments of students’ social and emotional behavior. Written for graduate students, practitioners, and researchers in the fields of school psychology, child clinical psychology, and special education, it will also be of interest to those in related disciplines. Building on the previous editions, this fifth edition includes updated references to DSM-5 and federal standards as well as an integrated approach to culturally competent assessment throughout the text. In Part I, Foundations and Methods of Assessment, the author provides a general foundation for assessment practice and outlines basic professional and ethical issues, cultural considerations, and classification and diagnostic problems. Part II, Assessment of Specific Problems, Competencies, and Populations, includes material on assessing specific social–emotional behavior domains, including externalizing problems, internalizing problems, social skills and social–emotional strengths, and the unique needs of young children. A chapter on school-wide screening methods was also added with this edition. By weaving together the most recent research evidence and common application issues in a scholarly yet practical matter, Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Assessment of Children and Adolescents continues to be the pre-eminent foundation for assessment courses.