Characteristics of participant groups
Parent consent was requested for all nominated children; parents of three children
identified in FACET classrooms did not provide consent. Thus, the final sample included
two groups of children with challenging behaviors in FACET classrooms (25 FOC and 22
GEN) and 23 children with challenging behaviors in control classrooms. In addition, 25
TYP children from experimental classrooms and 19 TYP children from control classrooms
comprised the normative comparison group. Table 2 reports the number of boys and girls
in each group, as well as the number children by grade/age: pre-kindergarten (4–5 yr);
kindergarten (5–6 yr); and first grade (6–7 yr).
Teachers provided global ratings using a 7-point scale to indicate the severity of their
concerns about children’s academic and social-behavioral functioning (1=no concern;
4=moderate concern; 7=extreme concern). Global ratings, summarized in Table 2, served
as a validity check on the teacher-nomination procedure. As shown in Table 2, teachers
expressed moderate to extreme concern about the academic and behavioral functioning of
children with challenging behaviors in experimental (FOC, GEN) and control classrooms
(Control-CHALL); ratings were similar among these three groups of children with
challenging behavior. Teachers reported no or minimal concerns about children whose
behavior was typical for experimental and control classrooms. Severity ratings for children
with typical behavior were significantly lower than ratings for children with challenging
behavior ( p b.001).