Adaptation of the behavior assessment system for children- 2, behavior and emotional screening system for use in Bangladesh

Abstract

Behavioral and emotional issues in preschool children have become a concern globally and also in Bangladesh where its high prevalence rate poses a threat to the country‟s future growth and development. Early identification of the behavioral and emotional issues is the best way to make early intervention for the preschool children which will reduce the rate of behavioral and emotional difficulty during early childhood. To address the needs, the present MPhil project was carried out with the aim of adapting behavioral screening system for children-2, behavioral and emotional screening system (KemphausR. W., & Reynolds C. R. 2007) for the preschool children of Bangladesh. The study was carried out to adapt and validate the Teacher Rating Scale and Parent Rating Scale for the preschool children. 200 teachers working with early childhood and 200 parents of young children, age range from 3-5 years was included as the participants. Cronbach‟s Alpha coefficients were an indication of reliability which was calculated separately for Teacher Rating Scale (.974) and Parent Rating Scale (.833). The test‐retest Teachers form (0.874) and the test-retest reliability coefficient for parents form (.892) also shows satisfactory level of the scale over time. Results showed that, there is a significant positive correlation between the BASC-2, BESS preschool teachers rating scale and the SDQ scale (r = 0.888*, N = 50, p< 0.01). It also showed that there is a significant positive correlation between the BASC-2, BESS preschool parent rating scale and the SDQ scale (r = 0.647*, N = 50, p< 0.01). This finding ensured the construct validity of the bangle adapted version.