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This article addresses the economic effects of mental disabilities by analyzing contemporary data in the context of micro- and macroeconomic thought and relevant statistical literature. Within the parameters of these conceptual and statistical reference points, the authors seek to discern current trends in the direct, indirect, and opportunity costs posed by mental disabilities, not only to the individuals who suffer from them, but also to their families, to employers, and to society as a whole. The authors also discuss uncertainties that inhere in available data concerning both the prevalence of these conditions and the related costs of treatment, as well as the complexity of drawing correlations among variables with respect to these costs and the difficulty of identifying a meaningful measure of the economic consequences that attend mental disabilities. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Research has investigated different variables involved in the implementation of behavioral interventions in the classroom. Results suggest that different factors such as acceptability of the intervention, psychologist-related variables, teachers' preferences, variables involving the intervention itself, and children's intervention preferences affect the implementation of behavioral interventions. However, no research has investigated the types of interventions teachers actually use in the classroom for behavior problems. This study surveyed a national stratified random sample of 228 regular and special education teachers. A questionnaire that had been previously developed by the researchers was utilized to ask what methods were used by the teachers to remediate behavior problems in their classrooms. Data were analyzed to determine types of interventions used and relationships to gender, degree, type of school (elementary, middle, or high school), grade taught, type of class (regular or special education), and region. Implications for school psychologists are discussed.One of the roles of psychologists in the schools is to recommend interventions for students with behavior problems. The importance of selecting interventions that are effective and efficient is well documented in the literature (Elliott, 1988;Elliott, Witt, Galvin, & Peterson, 1984), but the importance of selecting interventions that are also acceptable to teachers, the implementors, is not as well researched. Many of the studies focusing on acceptability have examined the effect of such psychologist-related variables as (a) the psychological jargon used to describe interventions; (b) the rationale that a psychologist gives for using an intervention; and (c) the psychologist's involvement in the intervention (Elliott, 1988). More recently the research has focused on the teacher acceptability of behavioral interventions. Data have been collected from undergraduate college students (Kazdin, 1981), child psychiatric inpatients, parents, and staff members (Kazdin, French, & Sherick, 1981), and preservice and student teachers (Witt & Martens, 1983;Witt, Martens, & Elliott, 1984). Not until the last few years with the collection of acceptability ratings for behavioral interventions from regular and special education teachers Hall & Wahrman, 1988) has the research been brought into the classroom.Research affecting teachers' intervention preferences has included study of child variables such as the type and severity of the problem. A summary of the results indicates that the more severe a child's problem, the more likely any given treatment will be considered acceptable (Elliott, 1988).A second area of research has concerned intervention characteristics, including the amount of time involved in the intervention, positive versus negative reinforcement, the effect on the child and other class members, and the strength of intervention effect (Elliott, 1988). A typical design for several of the studies was to present case studies of behavioral problems to pres...

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