Reduction of antisocial behavior in an open community setting through the use of behavior modification in groups (original) (raw)
Related papers
Assessment of Behavior Management and Behavioral Interventions in State Child Welfare Facilities
Residential Treatment For Children & Youth, 2008
Official state program reviews of 204 substitute care facilities were assessed for the types of behavior management and behavioral interventions used and the extent to which agency practices were consistent with learning theory principles. Data were also collected on the type and number of professional staff available to implement and oversee these procedures. Results showed that a sizable portion of the agencies used restrictive procedures (e.g., “timeout”) for response reduction purposes, but without incorporating positive reinforcement programs (e.g., token or point systems, contingent privileges) that would make the application of these procedures humane and therapeutically effective. Program reviews also indicated that relatively small numbers of professionally trained staff were available on-site to supervise the use of behavior management procedures and behavioral interventions.
A decade of social group work research: Trends in methodology, theory, and program development
This study examines a decade of social work group outcome research. Fifty-four group research studies were identified in nine key social work journals and from Social Work Research and Abstracts. Methodological aspects of the studies were reviewed including theoretical orientation, group format, leadership, design, target problem or area, and measurement. Results of the review indicate that investigations of cognitive-behavioral groups dominate the research literature. Although a wide array of target problems have been studied, children's social skills and behavior problems are the most frequently examined. Among the markers of increasing methodological sophistication of the group research literature were balancing of group leadership across comparison group conditions and the use of multiple measures for determining outcome. Although experimental studies were the most frequent design used, they were outnumbered by the combination of quasi-experimental group compansons and nonexperimental designs. The legacy of our 10 fingers leads us to a preference for counting in tens. Thus, the end of a decade signals a time for reflection of where we have been, and a time for speculation about where we are headed. This article presents results of a review of a decade of social group work research. The review focuses exclusively on group outcome studies appearing in social work journals. The review assesses methodological trends and suggests areas for future consideration. The state of social group work research has been examined in the literature on at least two occasions. Reviews by Marvin Silverman (1966) and Ron Feldman (1986) examined the level of social work group research relative to
Staff Intervention and Youth Behaviors in a Child Welfare Residence
Journal of Child and Family Studies, 2015
The aim of this study was to explore the bidirectional relationship between youth behaviours, more specifically opposition and aggression, and the types of interventions used by staff within a child welfare residential setting. Intervention forms were completed by staff after their interventions with youth. A total of 278 microinteractions between staff and youth were coded from 84 forms. Generalised estimating equations were conducted controlling for past aggression during the intervention. Reminding youth of rules and using constraining methods were the interventions used with greater frequency when youth were oppositional or aggressive. These two interventions were also found to increase the odds of opposition and aggression among youth.
Children and Youth Services Review, 2014
The purpose of the study was to evaluate a program that provides integrative case management for families dependent on at least two government services (e.g., child welfare, disability, chemical dependency, vocational rehabilitation). In the current study, we focused on effects of services on children's educational and child welfare outcomes two years after program exit. Children enrolled in the program were compared to a community comparison sample through propensity score matching. None of the group differences was significant. However, outcomes related to child maltreatment (number of child maltreatment reports accepted by Child Protective Services and out-of-home placements) improved dramatically within two years after exit. Outcomes in the education area were less uniformly positive. On the one hand, children's attendance was high and school mobility was low. In addition, there was a significant reduction in the number of children receiving special education services two years after exit. Nevertheless, a third of the children were still receiving special education services two years after exit, and their academic performance on standardized reading and math tests was quite poor. Thus, the intensive case management model was related to successful outcomes in an area directly targeted by the program (child maltreatment), but the gains did not generalize to another domain that was not an explicit focus of the program (academic achievement).
Child welfare supervised children's participation in center-based early care and education
Children and Youth Services Review, 2016
Research suggests that early care and education (ECE) services, particularly center-based ECE, may help prevent child maltreatment and also mitigate some of the negative developmental outcomes associated with child maltreatment. There is also preliminary evidence to suggest that ECE could reduce the likelihood that maltreatment allegations will be substantiated by child welfare authorities and/or result in children being placed in out-ofhome care. However, little is known about rates of ECE participation among children receiving child welfare services, nor the factors that determine ECE participation for this population. Data from the first wave of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing II, a nationally representative sample of children referred to the United States (U.S.) child welfare system (CWS) for suspected maltreatment, were used to measure the frequency with which 0-5 year olds participate in center-based ECE. Additionally, logistic regression analyses explored the effects of maltreatment type, substantiation, and children's living arrangements (i.e., with parents, relatives, or foster parents) on this outcome, controlling for a range of child and family covariates associated with ECE participation in the general population. Results indicate that less than a third of 0-5 year olds receiving child welfare services in the U.S. are participating in center-based ECE. Among the various categories of maltreatment type measured, being reported to the CWS for suspected physical abuse was associated with decreased odds of centerbased ECE participation; however, other types of maltreatment, substantiation, and living arrangement were unrelated to center-based ECE participation. These findings suggest that, despite recent efforts by the U.S. federal government to promote ECE participation for CWS-supervised children, the vast majority of young children in the U.S. CWS are not receiving center-based ECE, and physically abused children are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to accessing these services.
Journal of Public Child Welfare, 2012
In celebration and commemoration of the U.S. Children's Bureau Centennial, the Journal of Public Child Welfare (JPCW) has published this double special issue titled ''One Hundred Years of the U.S. Children's Bureau Professionalizing and Improving Child Welfare,'' with support from and in collaboration with the U.S. Children's Bureau (CB). Articles were solicited through an open call for papers. The JPCW received 3-4 times the number of submissions that could be included in this issue. All articles went through a double-blind review process, and there were many other quality manuscript submissions.
Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 2016
The current study examined the impact of a setting-level intervention on the prevention of aggressive or dangerous behavioral incidents involving youth living in group care environments. Eleven group care agencies implemented Children and Residential Experiences (CARE), a principle-based program that helps agencies use a set of evidence-informed principles to guide programming and enrich the relational dynamics throughout the agency. All agencies served mostly youth referred from child welfare. The 3-year implementation of CARE involved intensive agency-wide training and on-site consultation to agency leaders and managers around supporting and facilitating day-to-day application of the principles in both childcare and staff management arenas. Agencies provided data over 48 months on the monthly frequency of behavioral incidents most related to program objectives. Using multiple baseline interrupted time series analysis to assess program effects, we tested whether trends during the p...