A normative typology of teacher-rated child behavior

The goal of the present study is to identify and describe a normative typology of child behavior including variations in normally developing behavior, subthreshold disorder, and maladjustment. Profile types were formed based on scores from the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents (ASCA; McDermott, 1993). The ASCA was developed as a contextually based assessment tool. ASCA was intended to define psychopathology through the emergence of similar problem behavior in distinctly different situations. Traditional interpretation procedures produce scores on six core psychopathology syndromes (or phenotypes) including Attention-Deficit Hyperactive, Solitary Aggressive-Provocative, Solitary Aggressive-Impulsive, Oppositional Defiant, Diffident, and Avoidant. An additional scoring and interpretation system for the ASCA was developed by McDermott, Steinberg and Angelo (2005). This system is based on the contextual nature of the ASCA and capitalizes on the situational specificity of problem behavior in the classroom. Based on analyses utilizing the normative sample of the ASCA, three unique and reliable behavioral situtypes (problems in Peer Contexts, Academic Contexts, and Teacher Contexts) were defined through oblique factor modeling. This investigation used hierarchical cluster analysis to create a meaningful typology of 20 child behavior profiles. Each profile is differentiated by unique elevation and co-variation of scores across phenotypes and situtypes. The sample (N = 1,400) comprised the national standardization sample of the ASCA. It was designed to represent the population of all noninstitutionalized youths ages 5 through 17 years attending school between 1988–1990 in the United States. Internal and external variables were used to define and support the validity of the final profile types. Deviations in the expected prevalence of demographics such as age, gender, race-ethnicity, and socioeconomic status within each cluster were determined. The implications of the findings are also discussed