About the Book

This book provides a comprehensive foundation for conducting clinical assessments of child and adolescent social-emotional behavior in a practical, scientific, and culturally appropriate manner. It is aimed at graduate students, practitioners, and researchers in the fields of school psychology, child clinical psychology, and special education but will also be of interest to those in related disciplines such as counseling psychology, child psychiatry, and social work.

Section I, Foundations and Methods of Assessment, covers basic professional and ethical issues, classification and diagnostic problems, and comprehensive introductions to six primary assessment methods: behavioral observation, behavior rating scales, clinical interviewing, sociometric techniques, self-report instruments, and projective-expressive techniques.

Section II, Assessment of Specific Problems, Competencies, and Populations, includes six chapters for assessing specific socio-emotional behavior domains: externalizing problems, internalizing problems, other problems, social skills and peer relations, young children, and diverse cultural groups.

Key features include:

• New Material - Provides expanded coverage of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity within socio-emotional assessment; new material on conducting assessments within the context of ecological theory and public health models; increased information on assessing children with Asperger's disorder or high-function Autism, and discussions of several new assessment tools and systems.
• Evidence-Based Focus - Maintains a focus on empirically validated methods that research has shown to have adequate validity and reliability.
• Problem Solving Focus - Throughout the book, assessment is linked to decision-making within a problem-solving framework.
• Functional Focus - Maintains a focus on making assessments functional within specific contexts and environments.