A Strategy to Reduce the Challenging Behaviors of Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (2002)

Abstract Research suggests that problem behaviors displayed by children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are often reinforced and maintained by typical caregiver or teacher responses to such behavior. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the effects of an antecedent manipulation strategy on the severe challenging behaviors exhibited by children EBD. The results indicate that the strategy had a positive effect on the rates of severe challenging behaviors and time on-task exhibited by children with EBD. The results and implications are discussed. ********** The severe challenging behaviors exhibited by children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) pose a unique challenge to the educational community (Nelson, 1996). Research has demonstrated that the social, academic, and vocational outcomes of students with EBD who exit school programs are bleak (Edgar & Levine, 1987; Neel et al., 1988; Wagner, 1992; Wagner & Shaver, 1989). School dropout rates among these students range from 50% to 60%. Few youth enter any type of postsecondary educational training, and many are arrested at least once in the two years following their exit from school (Wagner, 1992). Within this context, it is vitally important to develop new direct intervention approaches that can prevent the severe challenging behavior patterns exhibited by children with EBD. The starting point for the present study was research on the reciprocal or interpersonal effects of child-adult behaviors conducted in developmental psychology. Reciprocal adult-child interactions occur when an individual's behavior serves as antecedents to subsequent behaviors. In the case of developmental psychology, evidence suggests that even global traits such as temperament systematically influence child-adult behaviors (Thomas, Chess, & Birch, 1968). Similarly, more discreet child behaviors such as crying (Murray, 1979), smiling (Bates, 1976), activity level (Stevens-Long, 1973), aggression (Faggot, 1984), and speech (Bohannon & Marquis, 1977) have an effect on adult behaviors, and vice versa. Patterson (1982) developed a theoretical framework (i.e., coercion theory) and provided supporting evidence for the interpersonal nature child-parent interactions within families of children who exhibit antisocial behaviors. Patterson reported that the immediate effects of parents' attempts to stop (i.e., threats and scolding) the problem behaviors of their children not only made the situation worse (in terms of persistence and escalation) due to the interpersonal effects of child-adult interactions, but also played a key role in establishing ongoing coercive family interactions. Closer to the present study, Shores and his colleagues (e.g., Shores et al., 1993) have demonstrated that the aggressive behaviors of children with EBD have a negative interpersonal effect on the extent to which teachers interact with children. Similarly, teachers' use of positive statements has a positive interpersonal effect on the rates of disruptive behaviors exhibited by children with EBD. Nelson and Roberts (2000) extended the work of Shores and his colleagues by studying the ongoing intra- (i.e., an individual's behaviors serve as antecedents for subsequent ones) and interpersonal sequence of child-teacher interactions around classroom problems in general education classrooms. They reported that the ongoing interaction behaviors of children and teachers around such problems remained relatively constant over time and appeared to be uninfluenced by contextual factors (e.g., content area, time of day, and teacher proximity). These findings suggest that there appear to be strong intra- and interpersonal effects associated with child-teacher interactions around classroom problems. Based on this research, Nelson and his colleagues (1996; 1998) hypothesized that teachers' responses (e.g., turning of cards, checks after names, repeated warnings and reprimands) to the minor problems of children with EBD may actually result in intra- and interpersonal reciprocal behavioral sequences in which individuals' responses (child and teacher) become more intense and chronic. …