Dimensionality of Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms Across Elementary-School Grades.

Various models of the dimensionality of behaviors associated with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) have been proposed or reported. Many of these models describe ODD-related behaviors in either two- or three-factor models. The purpose of the study was to determine which of the models of ODD-related behaviors demonstrated the best fit using teacher report of 15,521 children across eight grade levels and to examine measurement invariance of the model across grades. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine which of the models demonstrated best fit of teacher-reported ODD-related behaviors across eight grades. A two-factor model from a preliminary analysis of a subset of the current data demonstrated a better model fit than any of the existing six models examined and demonstrated measurement invariance across all grades. Across all of the models, affective and behavioral symptoms loaded onto separate factors, which may be an important consideration to inform future clinical and empirical work.

Does preschool children's self-regulation moderate the impacts of instructional activities? Evidence from a randomized intervention study.

There is strong evidence linking children's self-regulation with their academic and behavioral outcomes. These relations have led to the development of interventions aimed at improving academic outcomes by promoting self-regulation, based in part on the idea that self-regulation promotes the development of academic skills. Although a considerable number of studies have examined the degree to which interventions designed to improve aspects of self-regulation have a positive impact on academic outcomes, only a few studies have examined the degree to which children's self-regulation moderates the effects of academic interventions. The goal of this study was to examine whether self-regulation, indexed by a direct assessment of executive function and teacher-rated attention, moderated the uptake of early literacy interventions for 184 children (average age = 58 months, SD = 3.38; 66% Black/African American, 28% White; 59% male) at risk for reading difficulties who participated in a randomized controlled trial examining the efficacy of Tier 2 interventions in preschool. Multilevel models were used to examine the degree to which children's self-regulation moderated the impacts of the interventions. The results of this study provided little evidence that self-regulation moderated the impacts of the interventions and call into question the likelihood of a causal relation between self-regulation and academic achievement.

Do Parent and Teacher Ratings of ADHD Reflect the Same Constructs? A Measurement Invariance Analysis.

Discrepancies between parent and teacher ratings of problem behaviors related to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are reported frequently. Previous studies have hypothesized that these discrepancies are the results of various informant biases and have evaluated whether the rating scales are measuring behaviors the same way across informants. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if two rating scales of ADHD behavior, the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD Symptoms and Normal Behavior Rating Scale (SWAN) and the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale-15 (CTRS-15), reflected the same underlying constructs across parent and teacher report. Measurement invariance analyses were conducted using parent and teacher report data from a sample of 1,645 preschool to fifth-grade children (age range 46 to 169 months) that was comprised of roughly equal number of boys and girls and had racial/ethnic diversity similar to the community (i.e., 61% White, 22% Black/African American; 4% Hispanic/Latino). Although it was hypothesized that both rating scales would demonstrate measurement invariance across parent and teacher report, at least partial weak measurement invariance was only supported for the CTRS-15 across all grade groups. These results indicate that the meaning of any rating discrepancies on the SWAN are unknown because it is not reflective of the same underlying constructs across parents and teachers across all of the examined grade groups. In general, these results have potentially important implications regarding research on ADHD symptoms and related behaviors, and raise questions regarding the utility and measurement of ADHD symptoms.