Development, Reliability, and Construct Validity of the Emotional and Behavioral Screener

This article describes the Emotional and Behavioral Screener, a brief universal screening procedure designed to help identify students whose emotional and behavioral functioning puts them at risk for future serious problems, including identification in the emotional disturbance category. Development of the screener drew on items and normative samples associated with an existing instrument for measuring emotional disturbance. Among present findings are that the screener possesses high internal consistency reliability, overall and for age, gender, and race/ethnic subgroups. Construct validity was adequate, as indicated by significant discriminations between groups of students known to differ as to emotional and behavioral problems. Discussion includes study limitations, research needs about other psychometric characteristics, and some uses of the Emotional and Behavioral Screener.