The BASC-4 Behavioural and Emotional Screening System (BASC-4 BESS) is used by school districts and behavioural health professionals to efficiently assess the behavioural health of millions of young people each year. The BESS screening forms are quick to administer and are well tolerated by students, teachers and parents. They provide reliable insights into the behavioural and emotional strengths and challenges of children and adolescents, from preschool through to university/college.
BASC-4 Behavioural and Emotional Screening System
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BASC-4 Behavioural and Emotional Screening System

BASC-4 BESS

Randy W. Kamphaus, PhD,Cecil R. Reynolds, PhD
The BASC-4 Behavioural and Emotional Screening System (BASC-4 BESS) is used by school districts and behavioural health professionals to efficiently assess the behavioural health of millions of young people each year. The BESS screening forms are quick to administer and are well tolerated by students, teachers and parents. They provide reliable insights into the behavioural and emotional strengths and challenges of children and adolescents, from preschool through to university/college.
Scores/Interpretation:
T scores and percentiles, for a general population
Publication date:
2026
Completion time:
5–10 minutes
Age range:
3:0–18:11 (Teacher and Parent Forms); 8:0–18:11 (Student Form); 18:00–25:11 (University/College Student Form)
Qualification level:
B
Scoring options:
Q-global® web-based administration, scoring, and reporting
Reading Level:
Parent Form—Grade 6; Student Form—Grade 2

The BASC-4 Behavioural and Emotional Screening System (BESS) incorporates the latest norms, updated items and content, and new reporting options.

The BASC-4 BESS is designed for schools, paediatric practices, behavioural health providers, communities and researchers to screen for a variety of behavioural and emotional competencies and challenges. It is an essential tool for any prevention and early intervention programme seeking to identify mental health risk early, when challenges are more easily addressed.

Benefits

  • Assesses a wide range of behaviours that represent both internalising and externalising problems, as well as prosocial and interpersonal competencies that promote wellbeing
  • Features forms that can be completed in approximately 5–10 minutes without specialised training
  • Provides a Total Score on the report that is a reliable and accurate predictor of a broad range of behavioural, emotional and academic difficulties
  • Includes validity indices to identify overly negative or inconsistent ratings

Features

The BASC-4 BESS consists of brief forms containing 25 to 30 questions that are completed by teachers, parents or students.

  • Teacher Form: Preschool (for ages 3:00–5:11) and Child/Adolescent (for Years K–12)
  • Student Form: Child/Adolescent (for Years 3–12)
  • Parent Form with two levels: Preschool (for ages 3:00–5:11) and Child/Adolescent (for Years K–12)
  • University/College Student Form: ages 18:00–25:11
  • Requires no formal training for raters and can be administered in just 5–10 minutes
  • Normed on a representative sample that closely matches recent U.S. Census population characteristics
  • Item content that is well tolerated by students, parents and teachers as a result of use with millions of young people over the past two decades

BESS University/College Student Form

University/College leaders are increasingly concerned about the mental health needs of their students. Students are also aware of their growing mental health needs and look to their universities/colleges to provide support. The BESS University/College Student Form provides a quick, reliable and confidential way for counselling centres and student health services to screen large numbers of students.

Campus-wide mental health checks using the BESS provide valuable information for addressing individual student needs and for planning prevention and wellbeing promotion activities across the entire campus.

 

The following resources are available for BASC-4 BESS

Sample Reports

 

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