Children’s emotional, behavioral and developmental problems can be properly identified and assessed based on observations from their teachers and parents. The Motor Behavior Checklist (MBC; Efstratopoulou, Janssen, Simons, 2012) was designed to assist classroom teachers and Physical Education (PE) teachers in assessing their students’ motor-related behaviors. The present study aimed to apply the newly developed Arabic version of the MBC checklist at mainstream Schools in UAE, examine the structural and discriminant validity of the Arabic version of the MBC and to assess the effect of gender, age and type of disability on children’s behavior. A sample of 304 children (aged 6-12 years) were rated by their teachers using the 59 items of the MBC checklist. A Confirmatory Analysis of the data revealed that the Arabic version of the MBC is a valid measurement to assess behavioral problems in children in UAE. A MANOVA analysis indicated that there were differences among children rated by their teachers due to gender -with boys scoring higher in all problem scales- and due to the type of disability- with children with ASD and ADHD scoring higher than their typical developing peers on most of the problem scales. Finally, a path analysis on the data revealed that Internalizing behaviors could predict Externalizing behavior problems. Strategies to Identify and support students with behavioral problems in School settings are discussed.

Authors:
Maria Efstratopoulou, UAEU, United Arab Emirates
Max Opoku, United Arab University, United Arab Emirates
Hala Elhoweris, United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Maria Efstratopoulou is Associate Professor and the Head of Special Education Department in UAEU. She is an Active Researcher in the field of Assessment and Diagnosis for children and Author of 5 Books on Children 's education and health

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-maria-a-efstratopoulou-961a76a3/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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