Naturalistic study of the behavior of students with EBD referred for functional behavioral assessment

A descriptive study of 22 students (K-10th grade) with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) who were referred for functional behavioral assessment (FBA) revealed less on-task and more avoidant and inappropriate behaviors in comparison to classroom peers without EBD. Students who had been diagnosed as having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and were taking psychotropic medications had higher levels of inappropriate behavior. However, sequential analysis showed that individual variation in teacher and peer attention as consequent events best predicted students' inappropriate behavior. These findings indicate that individual differences in the consequent events that purportedly maintain problem behavior are unique to the student, as proponents of FBA have suggested.