Functional behavior assessment: A preliminary investigation of convergent, treatment, and social validity

Functional behavior assessment refers to the full range of procedures designed to identify the function of behavior. An extensive body of literature exists regarding the utility of functional behavior assessment for identifying functions of problem behaviors ranging from self-injurious behavior to disruptive behavior. Despite the voluminous extant literature on the subject, controversy exists regarding the psychometric properties of the methods used in conducting a functional behavior assessment. Three types of validity that may be most relevant to functional behavior assessment are convergent, treatment, and social validity. Convergent validity refers to the extent to which different measures of the same construct converge on or produce similar results. Treatment validity refers to the degree to which assessment is linked to beneficial treatment outcome. Social validity refers to the evaluation of the social significance of the goals of an intervention, the social acceptability of assessment and intervention procedures, and the evaluation of social importance of effects produced by intervention procedures. The literature regarding convergent validity for functional behavior assessment procedures is mixed at best. Scant data exist regarding treatment and social validity for functional behavior assessment. The purpose of the present study was to provide a preliminary investigation of the convergent, treatment, and social validity for a comprehensive functional behavior assessment procedure implemented in pre-school classrooms.; Four pre-school students and six teachers participated in the study. Each child received a comprehensive functional behavior assessment for problem behavior that included a teacher interview, direct-descriptive assessment, and brief experimental functional analysis. Assessment data were used to develop individualized function-based interventions that were implemented by experimenters and teachers. Results from the current investigation support convergent validity for multiple functional behavior assessment procedures as evidenced by complete convergence for three participants' assessments and partial convergence for one participant's assessment. Intervention data provided evidence for treatment validity as assessment data were directly linked to effective intervention for all participants. Results from assessment and intervention satisfaction rating scales indicated that teachers were satisfied with assessment and intervention procedures implemented in the classroom which provides support for the social validity of functional behavior assessment and function-based interventions.