This paper reports on the attitudes of 340 government primary principals from New South Wales, Australia, towards the inclusion of students with disruptive behaviours in schools. Principals’ attitudes were examined using the Principals and Behaviour Survey (PABS), a new composite measure built upon a foundation of existing validated surveys on attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities. Principal component analysis identified 3 components that were used as variables for correlations with a range of demographic characteristics, such as age, qualifications, experience, school size and location. School size and the number of students with a diagnosed mental health condition in the school had a small relationship with principals’ attitudes. From the analysis of data from the emotional response scale, it was found that principals’ emotions about inclusion were less positive towards students with disruptive behaviour than towards students with sensory, physical or intellectual disabilities. Overall, principals appeared to hold dichotomous positions in regard to the benefits of inclusion, viewing it as beneficial for students with disruptive behaviour but not for their peers. However, principals who held more positive views were consistently more positive across all measures.

The opening of a new Special Care Unit provided the opportunity to study the effect of reduced social density (fewer residents) and spatial density (more area per person) on the behaviour of residents with dementia. Two groups (N = 64) were observed at three periods spaced six months apart. As hypothesized, there was a greater improvement in Disruptive and Nondisruptive behaviour in the experimental group (move from high to low density) compared to the comparison group (constant high density). Findings suggest that unit density is an important determinant of behaviour in elderly residents with dementia.

Agitation in older persons is a major problem for the agitated individual and those around him/her. French-language measures of agitation with demonstrated validity and reliability are necessary for research and interventions in the French-speaking community. The goal of this study is to verify the reliability and validity of the “Inventaire d'agitation de Cohen-Mansfield” (IACM), a French version of the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory. The IACM measures the frequency of 29 agitated behaviours during a two-week period. Ninety-nine residents of a long-term care facility participated in this study. Results demonstrate the inter-rater reliability (r = .72), test-retest reliability (r = .72), internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha from .75 to .77), concurrent validity (r = .74) and construct validity (all r are significant, p < .05) of the IACM.

The present study illustrates the use of brief functional analysis probe conditions to verify the results of a descriptive assessment. An initial descriptive assessment of the disruptive behaviour of an 8-year-old student with severe developmental disabilities showed that levels of disruptive behaviour (screaming and throwing equipment) were higher in some lessons than others and suggested that the behaviour might be maintained by escape from task demands. An intervention in which work demands were alternated with 5-minute periods of free activity reduced levels of screaming to under 50%, and of throwing to under 25%, of baseline levels. Brief experimental variations of demand level in some lessons confirmed that levels of disruption were generally higher under high demand conditions. We conclude that brief probes provide a method by which experimental analyses can be conducted in the client's natural environment, reducing the problem of non-occurrence of the target behaviour that can pose problems for analogue assessments and facilitating ongoing assessment during initial intervention. We note also, however, that the consequent reduction in control over establishing operations may reduce the precision of the analysis and that ethical considerations limit the range of behaviours for which the method is appropriate.