Assessing the adaptive behavior of youths: multicultural responsivity.
Nearly 25 years ago, Allen-Meares and Lane appraised the status of adaptive behavior assessments in use at the time, citing their usefulness and relevance to the overall assessment of school children. This article revisits those instruments and examines select current instruments to gauge whether they include the multicultural sensitivity required to fairly assess the growing diverse populations of school children. Many of the popular adaptive behavior assessment instruments have not been normed with a wide array of racial groups or with cultural considerations in mind. This leads to suggestions of how social workers in particular may ensure that referred students are assessed fairly.
School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106, USA. pameares@umich.edu
Paula
P
Allen-Meares
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003469:Culture; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment