Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form

Section Breakdown, Scoring and Interpretation

Section I

Section I contains one short answer question that asks the parent/teacher to describe any specific circumstances or factors that may have influenced the child's recent behavior. This section allows such circumstances to be taken into consideration when interpreting the scoring of the rest of the assessment. Examples may be significant illnesses of a parent or extended visit of a cousin, resulting in altered behavior.

Section II

Section II has ten items that inquire about the occurrence of prosocial or positive behaviors. Each item presents a behavior, and the respondent is asked to rate on a 4-point scale, if that behavior applies to the child with the following response options:

• 0: "Not True"
• 1: "Somewhat or Sometimes True"
• 2: "Very or Often True"
• 3: "Completely or Always True"

The Positive Social scale in Section II contains two subscales: a compliant/calm subscale and an adaptive social subscale. The score sheet indicates which items fall under each subscale. Responses for the relevant items are summed together to yield two subscale scores. The subscales should be interpreted separately and should not be totaled. Higher scores indicate more adaptive behavior.

Section III

Section III addresses potential problem behaviors, and consists of 66 questions. Each question addresses a behavioral issue and asks the respondent to identify on a 4-point scale how often or severe the behavior has been over the past month using the following response options:

• 0: "if the behavior did not occur or was not a problem"
• 1: "if the behavior occurred occasionally or was a mild problem"
• 2: "if the behavior occurred quite often or was a moderate problem"
• 3: "if the behavior occurred a lot or was a severe problem"

The Problem Behavior section contains six subscales: a Conduct Problem subscale, an Insecure/Anxious subscale, a Hyperactive subscale, a Self-Injury/Stereotypic subscale, a Self-Isolated/Ritualistic subscale, and an Overly Sensitive subscale. The score sheet indicates which items fall under each subscale. Responses for each item are summed together to yield six subscale scores. Subscale scores are interpreted on their own; they are *not* added to create at total Problem Behavior score. Higher scores for each subscale suggest increased severity of problem behavior in that subscale category.