TEACHERS\u27 REFERRALS TO THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST: AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

The primary purpose of this study was to utilize an ecological model of behavior to better understand teachers\u27 referral decisions regarding elementary school pupils. The secondary purpose was to determine the perceived behavioral differences between referred and nonreferred children who had been matched on sex, race, and level of academic achievement. Initially, a Referral Problem Inventory (RPI) was developed for use in the major study. Factor analysis revealed four scales: (a) Acting Out, (b) Withdrawal, (c) Academic Work-Habits, and (d) Academic Skills. Each scale had a reliability of .89 or greater. In the major study, subjects were 53 elementary teachers who used the RPI by: (a) judging the salience of each of the four RPI scales to the classroom, and (b) rating the occurrence of each of the four RPI scles in each member of a matched pair of pupils. The pupils were matched on sex, race, level of academic achievement, and classroom and differed in referral status. These ratings of referral problem salience and perceived referral problem occurrence were then combined to yield a classroom maladaptiveness score for each pupil on each RPI scale. Data were analyzed using two repeated measures ANOVAs with referral status and grade level as the between factors, and the four RPI scales as the within factor. The dependent variable for each ANOVA, respectively, was classroom maladaptiveness scores and referral problem occurrence scores. The results indicated that the ecological measure of students\u27 behavior problems, the classroom maladaptiveness score, did significantly distinguish referred and nonreferred students with the referred having a greater degree of classroom maladaptiveness across all four scales of the RPI than the nonreferred. Comparison of the ecological model with a more traditional medical model of behavior favored the ecological model as slightly more efficient in distinguishing referral status. Implications for the study of referral practices and for school psychological services are discussed. Directions for future research to test the ecological model further using both referral problems and competencies of children are presented