CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL SUPPORT FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN LEARNERS AT RISK FOR EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDER

African American learners, like all other learners, bring into the classroom their cultural values, the way they express themselves, and how they problem solve. Their life experiences, even at a young age, influence their social and emotional behavior. Unfortunately, all too many African American children experience life and family stressors that place them “at risk.” Examples of risk factors are low socioeconomic status, single-parent homes, and inadequate access to healthcare. These adverse stressors put them at risk for developing emotional and behavioral disorder. This dissertation examines intervention approaches aimed to promote resilience and well-being through developing social and behavioral competencies that result in observable changes in behavior. The dissertation report results from two studies examining iterations of social and emotional learning interventions and behavior-based supports. The first study examined the effects of an intervention combining a culturally adapted social and emotional learning curriculum, behavioral monitoring/management, and self-monitoring on externalizing behaviors of African American male learners. A single case, multiple-baseline condition across participants was applied to evaluate the effects of the intervention package. The second study evaluated the effects of an intervention combining an adapted social and emotional learning curriculum and behavioral self-monitoring/management on problem behaviors of African American learners. Visual analysis was performed in both studies to evaluate within-condition data patterns including trend, level, and variability, as well as between-condition data analysis to determine immediacy of effect, similarity of data patterns of similar conditions, and changes in level and trend from baseline condition to intervention condition across implementations. To determine a functional relation in the studies, intervention effects were examined using the guidelines of Ledford and Gast (2018) and Tau-U. Results from both studies showed a decrease in problem behavior with application of the outlined interventions. Limitations of this work and directions for future study are also discussed