Internalizing symptoms and affect of children with emotional and behavioral disorders: A comparative study with an urban African American sample

Abstract

Self-reported internalizing symptoms of seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) and regular education students in grades 4–6 were compared using the Internalizing Symptoms Scale for Children. All participants were African American and from an urban public school district in the Southeastern United States. Each of the two study groups consisted of 50 participants (35 boys, 15 girls) who were matched by gender and socioeconomic status. The SED group reported significantly higher levels of internalizing distress than the regular education group. In contrast to previous findings, there was no significant gender difference in self-reported internalizing symptomatology in the present study. A discriminant function analysis found that the ISSC scores were able to correctly classify 91% of the participants into their respective educational group. Results of this study provide additional evidence of the construct validity of the ISSC, a recently developed and unique self-report measure. Results are discussed in terms of future research needs and educational/clinical practice with students who have emotional and behavioral disorders. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.