The Development and Validation of a Scale to Assess the Emotional and Behavioral Strengths of Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Strength-based assessment has received considerable attention from parents and professionals in child welfare, family services, education, mental health, and other social services. The Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: A Strength-Based Approach to Assessment was developed to provide parents and professionals with a standardized, norm-referenced, reliable, and valid instrument to measure strengths. Several pilot studies were conducted to establish the validity of the scale prior to the scale being normed on a nationally representative sample. The purpose of the present article is to report on these validity studies.