Using Comparison Peers as an Objective Measure of Social Validity: Recommendations for Researchers

In this article, students with challenging behaviors (SWCB) in a classroom may include those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD), intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, and those at risk of these disabilities. These students may present challenging behaviors in the classroom impacting their ability to be successful in school academically and socially. To address the needs of SWCB, there is a growing body of research on strategies to help improve these student's academic and social behaviors. The purpose of this article is to propose a model for using direct observation of the behavior of comparison peers as a marker for deciding an intervention's effectiveness, and therefore, its social validity for SWCB. Recommendations on the use of this strategy are provided in the article.