Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener-Teacher Version (SAEBRS)

General Information on the Measure
Purpose of the measure

The SAEBRS is a teacher-based rating scale of student risk for social-emotional and behavioral problems for K–12 students. The SAEBRS is designed for universal screening to identify school-, class-, and individual-level social-emotional learning needs.

Main constructs measured

Intrapersonal competencies; Interpersonal competencies

Applicable grade levels

Grades K–12

Publication year for the most recent version

2014

Year originally developed

2013

Related measures
Measure Administration
Respondent

Teacher

Method of administration

Digital

Number of items

19

Item format

Likert-type scale

Administration time

3 minutes per student

Available languages

English

Fee for use Fee charged by developer
Credentials required for administration

Completion of online preparation course.

Scoring
Overall score reporting

An overall behavior score is reported.

Subscore reporting

There are three subscores:

  • Risk for social behavior problems
  • Risk for academic behavior problems
  • Risk for emotional behavior problems
Scoring procedures

Online scoring is provided by the assessment developer.

Interpretive information

Reports are available at the individual student and class levels. Scores are criterion-referenced and categorized at four levels of risk.

Evidence of Technical Quality
Populations for which technical quality evidence has been collected

Evidence of technical quality has been collected from several different studies, each employing a different sample. These include:

  • Southeast elementary schools (54 teachers, 243 students) (Kilgus et al., 2013)
  • A midwestern high school (34 teachers, 488 students) (Kilgus et al., 2014)
  • Two separate elementary and middle school samples. One sample from the southeastern U.S. (864 students and 46 teachers) and another sample from the southwestern U.S. (1,534 students and 71 teachers) (Kilgus et al., 2016; von der Embse et al., 2016)
  • A rural midwestern elementary school (346 students and 17 teachers) (Kilgus et al., 2016)
  • Suburban schools in the northeastern U.S. (1,058 students) (Kilgus et al., 2017)
Reliability evidence

Internal consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha) was estimated for each scale separately for elementary school and middle school students. Estimates range from 0.79 to 0.94 (Kilgus et al., 2016). Estimates of inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.41 to 0.48 for the overall, academic behavior and social behavior scales (Kilgus et al., 2015).

Validity evidence
Evidence based on content
Initial items were reviewed by experts (including school psychology professors and doctoral students) and sorted into categories based on expert judgment. This expert panel also provided feedback on item wording (Kilgus et al., 2013).
Evidence based on response processes
No information is available in the references reviewed.
Evidence based on internal structure
Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor analysis demonstrated that the overall, academic behavior and social behavior scales were supported (Kilgus et al., 2013; Kilgus, 2016). Additional multilevel factor analyses substantiated these findings (von der Embse et al., 2016).
Evidence based on relations with other variables
SAEBRS scores were predictive of academic performance (Kilgus et al., 2017; student suspension and other measures of student risk and behavior internalization (Kilgus et al, 2016), as well as problem behaviors and academic competency (Kilgus et al., 2013).
Locating the Measure
Obtaining a copy of the measure fastbridge.org/saebrs/.
References

Kilgus, S. P., Chafouleas, S. M., & Riley-Tillman, T. C. "Development and initial validation of the Social and Academic Behavior Risk Screener for elementary grades," School Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 3, 2013, pp. 210.

Kilgus, S. P., Sims, W. A., von der Embse, N. P., & Riley-Tillman, T. C. "Confirmation of models for interpretation and use of the Social and Academic Behavior Risk Screener (SABRS)," School Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2015, pp. 335.

Kilgus, S. P., Eklund, K., Nathaniel, P., Taylor, C. N., & Sims, W. A. "Psychometric defensibility of the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS) Teacher Rating Scale and multiple gating procedure within elementary and middle school samples," Journal of School Psychology, Vol. 58, 2016, pp. 21–39.

Kilgus, S. P., Sims, W. A., von der Embse, N. P., & Taylor, C. N. "Technical adequacy of the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener in an elementary sample," Assessment for Effective Intervention, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2016, pp. 46–59.

Von der Embse, N. P., Pendergast, L. L., Kilgus, S. P., & Eklund, K. R. "Evaluating the applied use of a mental health screener: Structural validity of the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener," Psychological Assessment, Vol. 28, No. 10, 2016, pp. 1265.

Notes

Measure summary updated September 28, 2020.