In this study, the researchers examined the relationship between residential treatment staff members' use of cognitive and behavioral disputations and problem-solving skills just prior to discharge for 59 youths with emotional and behavioral disorders. The researchers also assessed the direct and indirect effects of engagement in treatment on…

Prior research indicates that reinforcement of an appropriate response (e.g., compliance) can produce concomitant reductions in problem behavior reinforced by escape when problem behavior continues to produce negative reinforcement (e.g., Lalli et al., 1999). These effects may be due to a preference for positive over negative reinforcement or to…

Analogue functional analyses are widely used to identify the operant function of problem behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities. Because problem behavior often occurs across multiple settings (e.g., homes, schools, outpatient clinics), it is important to determine whether the results of functional analyses vary across settings.…

Psychology texts often cite the work of Marian and Keller Breland and their business, Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE), to demonstrate operant conditioning and the "misbehavior of organisms" from an evolutionary perspective. Now available on the Internet at the official IQ Zoo website (http://www3.uca.edu/iqzoo/), the artifacts of ABE's work, in…

Today, advances in wireless sensor networks are making it possible to capture large amounts of information about a person and their interaction within their home environment. However, what is missing is how to ensure the security of the collected data and its use to alter human behavior for positive benefit. In this research, exploration was…

The main objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the effects of intervention programs on school attendance behaviors of elementary and secondary school students to inform policy and practice. The specific questions guiding this study were: (1) Do indicated programs with a goal of increasing student attendance affect…

This article discusses School-wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS), an evidence-based approach to teaching social competencies and enhancing the school social environment. The focus of this article is on the value of evaluation and evaluation plans at a district level for maintaining and increasing the effectiveness of SWPBS in a district. We…

This preliminary investigation examined the efficacy of a game-based cognitive-behavioral therapy group program for elementary school-aged children who have experienced sexual abuse. Treatment aimed to improve: (a) internalizing symptoms, (b) externalizing behaviors, (c) sexually inappropriate behaviors, (d) social skills deficits, (e) self-esteem…

The purpose of this study was twofold; first, to identify Australian and Canadian pre-service teachers' use, confidence and success in various behaviour management strategies, and second, to identify significant differences between the two cohorts. Pooled data indicated that pre-service teachers most frequently employ low level corrective…

The Healthy Rewards study tested the effectiveness of goal setting to encourage behavior change in Latino and African American adults in three northern California counties. Four groups of adults were alternately assigned to receive either 1) basic health promotion and nutrition education without goal setting (control) or 2) the same education with…

This study examined the associations between students' self-reported verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness and their perceptions of student BATs (Golish, 1999) as appropriate and effective as well as how likely they were to use each BAT. Participants were 187 undergraduate students enrolled in communication courses at a large Mid-Atlantic…

This document is a summary of policy recommendations from two longer and more detailed documents available from the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) regarding the use of physical restraint and seclusion procedures in schools. These recommendations include: (1) CCBD believes that physical restraint or seclusion procedures…

Several published reports have now documented the clinical effectiveness of motivational interviewing (MI). Despite its effectiveness, there are no generally accepted or empirically supported theoretical accounts of its effects. The theoretical accounts that do exist are mentalistic, descriptive, and not based on empirically derived behavioral…

The present study used a context-based model of assessment and intervention to explore whether interventions that modify context result in reduction of problem behavior in ecologically valid settings (i.e., typical routines implemented by typical education personnel in neighborhood schools). The Contextual Assessment Inventory (CAI) and a…

If the members of a functional response class occur in a predictable order, a response-class hierarchy is said to exist. Although this topic has received some attention in the applied literature, it remains relatively understudied. The purpose of the current investigation was to develop an analogue model of a response-class hierarchy. Children…