Teachers' social validity ratings of social skills: Comparisons between mildly handicapped and nonhandicapped children

Frank M. Gresham, Stephen N. Elliott

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Teachers have certain expectations or standards for children's social behavior in mainstream classrooms. The purpose of the present study was to document regular education teachers' social behavior standards for a sample (N = 250) of mildly handicapped (LD, BD, and MR) and nonhandicapped students matched on sex and race. Using the teacher version of the Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS-T), 125 teachers rated the importance of 50 objectively described social behaviors. Results of the teachers' ratings indicated that they valued academic-related social behaviors as more important to classroom functioning than peer-to-peer interaction behaviors. High rater agreement, as measured by rank-order correlations, was demonstrated between Black and White teachers (rho = .96) and male and female students (rho = .93). Rank-order correlations between each handicapped subsample and matched nonhandicapped subsamples were also high (rho ranged from .91 to .98). Thus, teachers' ratings of importance did not vary much as a function of student race, sex, or classification. These findings are discussed in the context of a “model behavior profile” expected for students in classrooms and the appropriate selection of target behaviors for intervention.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)225-234
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Psychoeducational Assessment
Volume6
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1988
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Clinical Psychology
  • General Psychology

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