Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS)

What is “student risk?”

When you hear the term “” or “student at risk,” it refers to students encountering problems that negatively affect their mental well-being and ability to accomplish their work, find success in education, and have a shot at receiving academic achievements.

Every school will have students at risk, and the goal should be to minimize their risk so they have a relatively smooth academic journey. Educators handling such students need to scrutinize the possible factors these students are facing.

There are numerous factors to consider when assessing students who are at risk. You have to look into their school life, first and foremost. Do they have learning disabilities or developmental disorders? Do they have low test and/or assignment scores? Do they have any academic achievements? Do they have limited access to educational materials due to financial problems?

Other aspects like a student’s social life and mental health should also be considered. Are they getting any support from their family and friends? Do they have friends? Are they being bullied? Do they have anxiety?

Focusing on different aspects of a student’s life is important so educators can determine key areas of concern and come up with ways to address them. This allows them to provide the appropriate support a student needs so their education is productive and positive.

How to use the Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS)

One way to gauge the risk levels of a student is to use assessments such as the Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS). This assessment is easy and quick to use because there are only a few items that need to be answered. It’s also often paired with another student risk-related assessment called the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS), which we also have a guide for.

The Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale focuses on the internalizing behaviors of students who are believed to be at risk or confirmed to be at risk. Here are the things the scale will look into:

• Nervous or fearful
• Bullied by peers
• Spends time alone
• Low academic achievement
• Withdrawn
• Sad or unhappy
• Complains about being sick or hurt

Those using this scale to assess students only need to do two things. The first thing they need to do is rate the aforementioned items with one of the following:

• 0 = Never
• 1 = Occasionally
• 2 = Sometimes
• 3 = Frequently

The second thing they need to do is add up the scores based on the ratings they gave per item. To interpret the scores of each student, they can refer to the following ranges and designations:

• 0 to 3 = Low risk
• 4 to 8 = Moderate risk
• 9 to 21 = High Risk

Just to put it out there, the Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale’s results are insufficient on their own when it comes to determining what interventions and support should be considered for a particular student. It’s always best to use other assessments such as the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS) and other school-related data concerning the student (e.g., their test scores, overall subject scores, disciplinary records, absence records, detention records, etc.).

Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS) Example

Now you’ve been familiarized with the basic gist of what student risk is, including what the Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale is, what it seeks to measure, and how the results are interpreted, it’s time to see what it looks like!

Our template for this assessment doesn’t just take the original scale. We added radio buttons for people to engage with. They can tick them with a pen if they’re using a physical copy or just click the buttons if they’re using a digital copy.

We also added an additional comments box so people can write their notes. These can be elaborations on their ratings and whatever observations they made regarding their students. These notes might help with creating an intervention and support plan for the student when combined with other data.

If you like what you see and believe this assessment will help you assess students at risk, feel free to download our free Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale PDF template!

Download this Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS) Example:

When is it best to use the Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS)?

The Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale is an assessment designed to be used twice a year. If you happen to be an educator, a school counselor, or a member of an educational body that often works to assess children for potential risks and problems, it’s best to use this assessment once each semester. That way, you can track any changes, no matter how small.

Do note this: if you’re going to use this assessment to gauge your students, you need to do so with the mindset that you’re not seeking to isolate a student or exclude them from anything related to their school work and life. It’s best approached as a way of determining what support you and your colleagues can provide to certain students based on their respective scale results, other assessments, and school data (test scores, detention records, absence records, etc.).

The scale is not meant to be used as a way to label students or designate them as students with special needs requiring special education. It’s also not a tool for identifying their personality traits. Just to reiterate, this assessment is for determining critical areas of concern that may negatively impact a student’s school life, performance, and academic journey. This should aid in determining how you can create a safe, non-judgmental environment for a student where they can learn and be themselves in peace. It should also help educators determine how to allocate resources so the student has an equal shot at achieving academic excellence like everyone else, plus to help ensure they graduate on time.

What are the benefits of using the Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS)?

The scale helps educators determine some of the factors that may put a student at risk.

The Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS) was designed to look at certain internalizing behaviors that certain students might have. By taking into account the seven items listed on the scale, educators can determine if one, some, or all of these internalizing behaviors should be considered critical areas of concern. This is where the additional comments box comes in. It can be used as a way for educators to elaborate on their ratings and write down observations related to those ratings. 

It pairs well with the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS).

Earlier in this guide, we mentioned that the Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS) is often paired with the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS). The reason why this is so is that the latter takes a look at externalizing behaviors. Pairing these two assessments will help educators cover both externalizing and internalizing behaviors, which will give them a more comprehensive result than they would if they use either one on its own. The results for both are often combined with other school data related to the students that are being evaluated. Doing so will help educators make decisions regarding the appropriate interventions and support they should provide for their students.

It can be used to monitor changes in students over time.

Using the Student Internalizing Behavior Screening Scale (SIBSS) doesn’t have to be a one-time thing. In fact, just like the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS), it’s best to use it twice a year. Given this, you can consider the scale as a monitoring tool. Let’s stipulate that you’ve created an intervention and support plan for a certain student, you’ve implemented it, and they’ve been following this plan for a while. It’s only natural you’d want to see if there are any changes in their internalizing behaviors. You can use this scale in the middle of the following semester to gauge for any changes. If their scores are lower, that means their risk levels are lower, and their school life and competencies are improving. If not, then perhaps tweaking your plan might do the trick.

How can Carepatron support professionals with school counseling and student therapy-related work?

If you’re reading this guide, you’re likely an educator, a school counselor, or a member of an educational body tasked to gauge certain students at risk. If so, we hope that this mini-guide was a good introduction or refresher to the scale, and we hope that the template we made helps you gauge students who might be struggling with their respective academic journeys.

Now, while we still have you, we’d like to ask you to check out more of the Carepatron platform. Yes, we know that what we have is for healthcare professionals, but that doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from it. Our mission is to make healthcare accessible to all, and that includes non-healthcare professionals.

One feature of ours that we believe will help you with your school counseling and student therapy-related work is our resource library! It’s filled to the brim with resources covering numerous healthcare fields and topics, including mental health! Our template for SIBSS is part of it, and so is our template for the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS). We even have other assessments that can gauge children for ADHD, ASD, anxiety, depression, and more! These can help you cover more ground when determining what you should add to your intervention and support plans for students. We also have worksheets that can help you get to know them more. While the worksheets we have are often used in therapy programs like CBT and DBT, how students grapple with these worksheets might reveal things that might be good to take note of when you’re making plans to help them.

What’s great about the resources we have is that they’re all free, so feel free to download as much as you want and need!