Behavioral interventions based on operant principles are commonly attempted to manage agitation in older adults with dementia. The extent to which operant conditioning can occur in persons with particular dementias, however, is unclear. The present study involved use of a button-pressing task to evaluate the sensitivity of the responding of older…

A focus on antisocial beliefs and attitudes has informed both the assessment and treatment literature, and practice, in youth justice service provision. This study attempts to broaden the construct of antisocial beliefs and attitudes and reports on the psychometric development of the Antisocial Beliefs and Attitudes Scale (ABAS). The ABAS is a new…

Although there have been claims of significant therapeutic benefits arising from the use of deep touch pressure techniques with children with autistic spectrum disorders, to date there have been few empirical investigations of its use with adults with autistic spectrum disorders and anxiety in clinical practice. This paper reports on the…

We examined behaviour management problems as predictors of psychotropic medication, use of psychiatric consultation and in-patient admission in a group of 66 adults with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) and intellectual disability (ID) and 99 controls matched in age, gender and level of ID. Overall, people with PDD had higher rates of most…

The main aim of this study was to explore associations between students' perceptions of learning environment factors and their reports of emotional and behavioural problems (EBP) and to what degree students' coping styles could influence this relation. The study was conducted as a survey among a representative sample of 2006 Norwegian…

The objective of this study was to explain why adolescent girls with conduct problems (CP) are more at risk than boys to develop emotional distress (ED) in a sample composed of Israeli-born and immigrant youth from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union (n = 305, ages 14-18). We tested a structural equation model and found a very good fit to the…

Data from a nationally representative sample of 13,470 children aged 4-11 years were used to study contextual influences on children's mental health and school performance, the moderating effects of family immigrant status and underlying family processes that might explain these relationships. Despite greater socioeconomic disadvantage, children…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of training paraeducators on (a) paraeducator prompting use of augmentative communication (AAC) systems, (b) paraeducator responding to student requests, (c) student use of AAC, and (d) student problem behavior via a series of multiple probe designs. Participants were three paraeducators and…

Although previous research indicates that certain types of attention (i.e., statements related to behavior, tickles) may be differentially reinforcing, only one or two forms of attention are typically provided contingent on problem behavior during the attention condition in experimental functional analyses. In the present investigation, various…

The article begins by discussing the literature as it relates to the perceived effectiveness of behavioural management approaches, as well as the author's experiences of implementing a behavioural approach. The second part highlights an alternative viewpoint, as derived from an empirical study, as it relates to the pupil perspective of effective…

This article links the empirical literature on race and ethnicity in developmental psychopathology with interventions designed to reduce adolescent problem behavior. We present a conceptual framework in which culture is endogenous to the socialization of youth and the development of specific self-regulatory strategies. The importance of cultural…

Although functional assessment-based interventions have produced desired outcomes in student behavior in applied settings, most of those interventions involved strong, sustained participation with researchers in intervention design, implementation, and assessment. In this article, we describe a systematic approach to designing, implementing, and…

Children born to early child bearers are more likely than other children to display problem behaviors or poor academic performance, but it is unclear whether early childbearing plays a causal role in these outcomes. Using multiple techniques to control for background factors, we analyze 2,908 young children and 1,736 adolescents and young adults…

This article examines the notion of integrated studies as a way of organising curriculum in schools. Drawing on the insights of educational philosophy, curriculum theory and learning theory it establishes the soundness of a theoretical case for integration. It examines what this view means for the art and science of teaching, and notes examples of…

The current investigation assessed the effectiveness of protective equipment, specifically arm splints, in reducing the occurrence of severe self-injurious behavior (SIB). Although the protective equipment reduced rates of SIB to near-zero levels, self-restraint subsequently emerged. In an attempt to reduce self-restraint while maintaining…