Many programs designed for children and youth with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) include a social skill training component. Using quantitative methods of meta-analysis, the findings from 35 studies investigating the effects of social skill interventions for students with EBD were synthesized. The pooled mean effect size (ES) was 0.199, from which the average student with EBD would be expected to gain a modest eight percentile ranks on outcome measures after participating in a social skill training program. Studies were further grouped and analyzed according to different variables (e.g., similarities of the intervention, participants, and assessment procedures). Slightly greater ESs were found for interventions that focused on teaching and measuring specific social skills (e.g., cooperating, or social problem solving) compared to more global interventions. Several pertinent issues for reviewing the results of this research synthesis are addressed.

Sixty-four single-subject studies examining the effectiveness of social skills interventions with students with emotional or behavioral problems were included in this synthesis. The results of quantitative synthesis procedures using percentage of nonoverlapping data suggest that social skills interventions have limited empirical support for their overall effectiveness. Implications for future social skills research and quantitative analysis methodology are discussed.

The 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandate that schools evaluate, through the process of a functional behavioral assessment, students with disabilities who are exhibiting significant behavior problems that lead to suspension and expulsion. We examined the literature on functional behavioral assessment according to external validity and assessment with regard to its cost-benefits (i.e., its effectiveness relative to other approaches, time, and effort). The results indicate that although functional behavioral assessment has shown promise for youth and adults with low-incidence disabilities in clinical settings, evidence regarding its effectiveness when applied to youth with both low- and high-incidence disabilities in school settings is limited. There appears to be no research that has examined the cost-benefits of functional behavioral assessment. Future research needs are discussed.

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