Characteristics of Emotionally Disturbed Children Referred to Day-Treatment, Special-Class, Outpatient, and Assessment Services

We examined characteristics differentiating 68 emotionally disturbed 6- to 12-year-old children referred to one of four treatment programs: day treatment, segregated class, outpatient treatment, or assessment only. We expected that children in the more intrusive programs (i.e., day treatment and special class) would be characterized by more severe emotional problems than would be children in the less intrusive treatment programs. Measures of children's emotional adjustment, family functioning, academic achievement, self-concept, and attending behavior in the classroom were administered prior to admission of children into their respective program. A multivariate analysis of variance was calculated on the 28 dependent measures administered in the study and failed to show significant group differences. Moreover, on most measures the results for all four groups did not deviate significantly from normal limits as indicated in the test administration manuals. We discuss possible reasons for these unexpected results and their implications.