Prediction of residential independence of special education high school students.

The team looked at special-education high-school leavers. They wanted to know which facts foretell who will live on their own later.

They fed missing data, student problem behavior, student skills, and family facts into a regression model. The model tried to guess who would achieve residential independence.

The model explained 44 percent of the variance in residential independence. Problem behavior, missing records, student competence, and family traits all mattered.

Fewer behavior problems and stronger competence raised the odds of living independently. Family support also helped.

Corrigan et al. (1998) ran almost the same study with more predictors. They got 37.6 percent variance explained, close to the 44 percent here. The pattern held: daily living skills, social skills, and low problem behavior still won.

McGeown et al. (2013) followed teens further into full adult life. They also found that adolescent challenging behavior beat IQ and autistic traits when predicting later functioning. The message is steady: behavior counts most.

Kahn (1992) looked at younger kids with severe ID. Early adaptive scores forecast later scores four years out. Together, these papers say: measure behavior and adaptive skills early, keep tracking, and plan supports around them.

BCBAs can start rating problem behavior and adaptive skills before exit. Use the data to flag who needs extra living-skills teaching, family training, or behavior reduction. Targeting these areas now may lift the chance of true residential independence later.