THE EFFECTS OF ANTECEDENT, CONSEQUENCE, AND ANTECEDENT - PLUS - CONSEQUENCE TREATMENTS ON BEHAVIORAL CHANGE (BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT, PEDIATRIC PSYCHOTHERAPY)
Abstract
The study investigated which of three treatment conditions, namely, antecedent, consequence, or antecedent-plus-consequence, is most effective in the remediation of maladaptive behavior. To address the question, 54 children displaying maladaptive behavior were randomly assigned to one of the three treatment conditions. The actual study was conducted between March 14 and June 12, 1984, during which each family was visited in their home a total of three times. The first visit was spent identifying a target behavior, completing the Marquette University Agreement of Consent for the Protection of Human Subjects, and training parents to take a baseline score of the target behavior. The second visit, scheduled to occur immediately following baseline determination, was devoted to training parents according to the treatment condition to which they were assigned. Immediately following training, parents conducted 10 days of treatment. Data collection lasted a total of 13 days divided between 3 days of baseline determination and 10 days of treatment. The final home visit was scheduled after treatment was completed. At this third visit, completed data sheets were collected, parental rating scales were completed, and an explanation of the other treatment strategies was given. The data analyses were based on two measures of change: the Index of Treatment Outcome (ITO) and the parental rating scale. The ITO is defined as the mean baseline total (an average of the last three days immediately preceding treatment) minus the mean at termination (an average of the last three days of treatment) divided by the baseline mean. Ranks were provided based upon these scores. These ranks were analyzed according to the Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance by Ranks. A statistically significant difference was revealed between antecedent treatment and antecedent-plus-consequence treatment with the antecedent-plus-consequence condition showing more remediation of maladaptive behavior than the antecedent condition (x('2) = 5.9896; df = 2,51; p < .05). The parental rating scale is a Likert-type scale which assigns a numerical value corresponding to parental ratings of change in their child's behavior ranging from unfavorable (Behavior Much Worse--1) to favorable (Behavior Much Better--5). These scores were statistically analyzed according to a one-way analysis of variance, fixed effects model. This analysis revealed no statistically significant differences among the three treatment groups (F = 1.6161; df = 2,51; p > .05).
This paper has been withdrawn.