PROFILES OF STUDENT BEHAVIOR AND THE SSIS-CIP: LATENT PROFILE AND TRANSITION ANALYSIS

Abstract

Early identification of emotional and behavioral disorders is critical in ensuring that students receive the interventions and supports necessary for school success. While externalizing and internalizing behaviors often occur comorbidly, more research is needed to understand how different subtypes of these behaviors may manifest, especially in the early elementary school years. Further, as schools increase their emphasis on universal, evidence-based interventions as tools for preventing the development of later social-emotional and behavior challenges, it is important to understand how different groups of students respond to such interventions. In the present study, I explored the behavioral and emotional profiles of 470 second-grade students using latent profile analysis. I also examined how students transitioned between profiles over the course of one school year (i.e., fall to spring) within the context of a social-emotional intervention (Social Skills Improvement System-Classwide Intervention Program, SSIS-CIP; Elliott & Gresham, 2007). Additionally, I used multinomial logistic regression analyses to examine if child race, gender, teacher-student relationship, and treatment condition (intervention vs. control) predicted profile membership and transition over the course of a school year. I used five behavioral composites from the Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scales-Teacher Form (SSIS-RST; Gresham & Elliott, 2008) to create the student profiles. Three profiles of students emerged in the present study. The first profile (normative) was characterized by the lowest levels of all five externalizing and internalizing behaviors. The second profile (at-risk) demonstrated elevated levels of impulsive behaviors, conduct problems, and emotion dysregulation, with less elevated levels of bullying. The third profile (comorbid) demonstrated elevated levels of all five externalizing and internalizing behaviors. From fall to spring, students in the normative profile exhibited a 93% probability of remaining in the normative profile. Students in the at-risk profile demonstrated a similarly high likelihood of remaining in the at-risk profile over time (72%), while students in the comorbid profile experienced a 57% chance of remaining in the comorbid profile over time. Teachers’ observed emotional support, child race, child gender, and participation in the SSIS-CIP intervention were all predictors of profile movement, however, the associations varied across the different profiles. Results of the present study suggest the SSIS-CIP may function as a preventative tool for students identified within the normative group as well as an effective intervention for those students with the most severe behavioral presentations. Consistent with previous research, teachers rated males and students of color higher on measures of externalizing behaviors. Notably, while female students were less likely to be identified in the comorbid profile in the fall, they were more likely to remain in that profile over time compared to male students who were identified in the comorbid profile in the fall. Surprisingly, teacher emotional support was negatively associated with movement from the at-risk group to the normative group. Future research should continue to explore the ways in which externalizing and internalizing behaviors manifest in young children as well as the intersection between gender and race as it relates to teachers’ ratings of students’ behaviors.