Presenter(s)

• Elizabeth Brower, School Psychology Doctoral Candidate, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Jay Jeffries, Doctoral Candidate, University of Nebraska Lincoln

Abstract

School psychologists play a key role in developing family-school partnerships (FSPs), and high quality partnerships have been shown to benefit students with behavioral and social-emotional needs. More information is needed to determine conditions and contexts that improve or hinder the efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC), a FSP intervention proven efficacious for addressing students’ social-behavioral needs. The current study involved data from 628 children, their parents, and 352 teachers who participated in studies of CBC across 98 schools. Four multilevel models assessed the degree to which students’ internalizing and externalizing behaviors between groups (i.e., CBC group vs. control group) at post-test were impacted by a number of hypothesized moderators. Results indicate indicate parents’ perceptions of their relationships with teachers at baseline and student eligibility for free/reduced lunch moderated CBC student outcomes, whereas parent participation in the multidisciplinary team (MDT) process did not moderate student outcomes. Implications for the importance of parent-teacher relationships and nuanced interventions for students who are low income (i.e., as measured by free/reduced lunch status) are discussed.