Empirically supported interventions in school psychology: The role of negative results in outcome research

We discuss the role that negative results or “no-difference” findings play in research and research reviews of empirically supported interventions in school psychology. Specifically, we examine the dimensions of negative-results research within the context of randomized experimental between group and experimental single-case design, discuss some reasons for negative-results findings in these methodological approaches, and present some positive aspects of negative results in intervention research. We also examine the relationship of negative-results findings to replication research including direct replication, systematic replication, and clinical replication. We argue for publication of negative-results findings in our school psychology journals when these findings occur in the context of development of empirically supported interventions and translation of these interventions into school psychology practice.