Checklist Identification of Elementary Schoolboys for Clinical Referral or Evaluation of Eligibility for Special Education

Abstract

Achenbach and Edelbrock teacher and parent checklists were used to develop a practical procedure to assist educators in determining if a boy with behavioral/emotional dysfunction in elementary school requires mental health referral or SED evaluation. SED, psychiatric outpatient, and general population Caucasian boys ages 6 to 11 years were compared. Appropriately, scores for the SED and the outpatient groups were pathological and significantly greater than scores for the general population group on both checklists, while SED scores were significantly higher than outpatient scores on the teacher checklist. Logistic regression analyses showed the Total Problem scales of both checklists to be the most efficient and economical scales for classification. Finally, probability tables were constructed to distinguish SED and outpatient boys from general population boys, and SED boys from outpatient boys.