Adaptive and challenging behavior changes associated with movement from Minnesota's state institutions to community homes were examined in 148 participants with mental retardation. Adaptive behavior declined among residents who moved to community programs but was unchanged for persons who moved to Home and Community Based Services Waiver-Funded…

Indices of family contact were reviewed across four cohorts of persons with mental retardation (n=151) who were transferred from a large public institution to small supported living arrangements. Family contact increased subsequent to community placement and these increased levels of contact were maintained for as long as four years. (Contains…

Two studies were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the Parent Interview for Autism-Clinical Version (PIA-CV) for 58 children (ages 2-5). Results support the utility of the PIA-CV for obtaining ecologically valid information from parents and for measuring behavioral change in young children with autism. (Contains references.)…

Outdoor behavioral healthcare (OBH), using wilderness therapy and related outdoor programming, is an emerging treatment for adolescents with behavioral, psychological, and substance abuse disorders. A literature review examining OBH outcomes related to self-concept, interpersonal skills, substance abuse, criminal recidivism, and behavioral and…

Used the RE-AIM (reach, efficacy, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) evaluation framework to assess how thoroughly recent school-based studies in 12 leading journals addressed RE-AIM issues, emphasizing external validity. Studies rarely addressed RE-AIM dimensions regarding external validity. School-based behavior change interventions…

College counselors can play an important role in implementing brief strategies that will motivate students to stop smoking cigarettes. Provides an overview of motivational interviewing, a specific protocol that can be applied to college student smoking. Also presents preliminary evidence of the success of this approach in promoting abstinence from…

To deal with difficult campers, meet with them at an unexpected place and time, and have as many adults present as campers. Begin with a story, then have each camper share a positive story. Discuss positive possibilities and ask for honest accountability. Frame the solution realistically, get agreement for change, and close with affirmation.…

Evaluated the impact of online, stage-based materials on exercise behavior and stage of readiness to change. College faculty participated in stage-based, action-message, or control groups. Occupational and leisure activity, 7-day physical activity, exercise self-efficacy, and stage of readiness to change were assessed at baseline and 6 weeks.…

Forty-two children (ages 2-15) with autism were randomized in to two groups. One group received 2 IU/kg of intravenous synthetic human secretin at the first visit, followed by a saline placebo at week 6. The other group received treatment in the reverse order. Children showed no differences on assessments. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Discusses the limitations of previous energy conservation programs in affecting the behavior of individual consumers. Suggests that the rational-economic model upon which they were based needs to be supplemented with alternative psychosociological models in developing future programs. (EVL)

The study reduced the disruptive behaviors of students in 2 elementary physical education classes, including an alternative education class containing 14 fourth and fifth grade boys with severe behavior problems. A modified time-out procedure was used to reduce frequency of disruptive behaviors by 95 percent. (Author/DB)

Teachers of students exhibiting behavioral deficits and excesses should focus on direct teaching of acceptable behavior, but this often does not occur because of teachers' feeling more comfortable teaching academic skills, paucity of curriculum materials, and such trends as minimum competency testing. Behavioral and cognitive approaches to…

Findings from 526 men who patronized gay bars revealed that perceived peer norms concerning acceptability of safer sex practices, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome health locus of control scores, risk behavior knowledge, age, and accuracy of personal risk estimation, but not personal human immunodeficiency virus serostatus knowledge, were…

Randomly assigned 60 fraternity pledges to behavioral self-management, alcohol education, self-monitoring of drinking behavior, or no-treatment control. Found no differences among treatment conditions on four self-reported dependent variables of drinking behavior. Found significant differences on self-report measures of alcohol consumption at…

Interviews with 127 women who had recently given birth ascertained three components of learning transaction types related to learning about weight gain and alcohol and tobacco use. Majority spent most of their time in other-initiated learning episodes one-to-one or with print/nonprint material. Learning transaction types were associated with…