Combining Explicit Timing with an Interdependent Group Contingency Program to Decrease Transition Times

ABSTRACT

A sixth-grade teacher and consultant serving as a behavioral specialist developed, implemented, and evaluated the Timely Transitions Game (TTG), a procedure designed to reduce room-to-room transition times. The TTG combined several procedures that have been shown to alter student behavior including explicit timing procedures and an interdependent, group-oriented reward program with randomly selected criteria. Five transition times were measured and recorded each day. At the end of the school day, the teacher randomly selected a transition and a criterion (seconds taken to transition). If the class completed the randomly selected transition in less time than the randomly selected criterion, they earned a letter. When students earned enough letters (e.g., the five letters that spell M-U-S-I-C), they received access to the reward (e.g., listening to music during independent seat-work). Results indicated immediate and sustained decreases in transition times following the implementation of the intervention. Although methodological concerns prevent drawing cause-and-effect conclusions, the current study shows how educators can adapt and combine empirically validated strategies and procedures to remedy presenting problems.     

Setting Generalization during Self-Reinforcement with Educationally Handicapped Children

Eight educationally handicapped boys ranging in age form 10 to 11 years old and described as the worst behavior problems in their class participated in a series of single-subject studies carried out in their self-contained classrooms. Three served as target subjects, using self-reinforcement procedures to increase their sustained on-task behavior in a treatment setting; five served as generalization subjects. Data were collected in three settings within the self-contained classroom; an early morning treatment setting, a late morning generalization setting, and an afternoon generalization setting. The three target subjects averaged a 51% increase over their baseline median levels of sustained on-task behavior in the treatment setting. They averaged 84% and 96% generalization to the late morning and afternoon generalization settings, respectively. These results demonstrate that self-reinforcement can produce setting generalization of treatment effects in the absence of prior externally determined reinforcement. Evidence for subject and subject-setting generalization was also obtained.     

Cognitive-behavioral treatment and antidepressants combined with virtual reality exposure for patients with chronic agoraphobia

In this study we compared the efficacy of virtual reality exposure combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (VRET) to that of traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) alone in reducing phobic symptoms in a sample of patients with long-term agoraphobia. The study was a between-subject design with three experimental conditions (VRET group, N = 30; CBT group, N = 30; and medication only group, N = 20) and repeated measures (pre-treatment, post-treatment, and six-month follow-up). All patients were receiving antidepressant medication. Results showed that all therapies were statistically effective both at post-treatment and six-month follow-up. The VRET group showed clinical improvement in most variables measured at follow-up. The CBT group showed the highest dropout rates. These results are discussed pointing out that VRET probably serves as an intermediate procedure for an efficient exposure to phobic stimuli. Besides describing the advantages of VRET for the treatment of agoraphobia symptoms in cost-benefit terms, the study also considered issues related to higher treatment adherence and motivation.     

Traditional Beliefs Concerning Health and Illness Among Members of the Circassian Community in Israel

Objective: To understand the cultural context of illness in a homogeneous ethnic community, the Circassians. This is the first study of health perceptions and beliefs among Circassians. The Circassians arrived in Palestine from the Caucasus Mountain region more than a century ago. They constitute an endogamous group, whose members live in relative cultural isolation in two small villages in northern Israel, preserving their language and traditions. Design: Twenty-one elderly community members (men and women) were interviewed using open-ended interviews. Results: It was found that kutze (internal bodily resilience) is the central health-related concept and as such constitutes the main building block of a healthy and resilient community. Conclusions: By focusing on this specific community, the relationships between health beliefs and social organization were explored. Our findings highlight the need for the development of treatment approaches and/or health education that are deeply embedded in the cultural context, with special emphasis on the group's value infrastructure, life habits and health-related beliefs when studying various ethnic populations.     

社会支持、主动反刍与创伤后应激障碍的关系:来自地震后青少年的追踪研究

以追踪研究的方式,在汶川地震后3.5年、4.5年和5.5年三个时间点,采用社会支持问卷、反刍问卷和创伤后应激障碍量表对汶川地震后245名中学生进行调查。通过建立交叉滞后模型,考察社会支持、主动反刍与创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)的相互作用关系。结果发现,震后3.5年至5.5年间,社会支持与主动反刍之间的跨时间点预测作用不显著,PTSD对社会支持的跨时间点预测作用不显著,但对主动反刍具有显著的跨时间点正向预测作用。震后3.5年至4.5年间,社会支持对PTSD的跨时间点负向预测作用、主动反刍对PTSD的跨时间点正向预测作用均显著,但是这些作用在震后4.5年至5.5年间变得不再显著。     

Logics with the Qualitative Probability Operator

The paper presents several strongly complete axiomatizationsof qualitative probability within the framework of probabilisticlogic. We show that in the proposed semantics qualitative probabilitiesare characterized by probability functions, so they also arecomparative probabilities.     

Individual Resiliency Factors from a Genetic Perspective: Results from a Twin Study

This article is part of the Twin Mother's Study, a study that examines influences on maternal adjustment. A number of studies have investigated the importance of genetic factors for mental health, but few of these examine how genes and the environment influence resiliency/salutogenic factors. This article investigates the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences on resiliency/salutogenic factors. This study includes 326 twin pairs (150 monozygotic and 176 dizygotic) who are mothers, who are living with their spouse, and who are part of the Swedish twin register. Using self‐report structured questionnaires, we assessed salutogenic factors, depression, and quality of life; however, we analyzed the questionnaires completed by the mothers. Statistical analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling. We conclude that nonshared environmental components were of principal importance in individual resiliency/salutogenic factors in a genetically informative design, but we also noted that genetic influences were important. The shared environment had mainly no effect.     

Active school travel is associated with fewer suicide attempts among adolescents from low-and middle-income countries

Background/Objective: This study explored the association between active school travel (AST) and suicide attempts among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Method: We used the data from the Global School-based Health Survey, including 127,097 adolescents aged 13-17 years from 34 LMICs. A self-reported survey was used to collect data on AST and suicide attempts as well as some variables. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to assess the association between AST and suicide attempts. A meta-analysis with random effects was undertaken to identify the difference in the association between AST and suicide attempts. Results: Across all the adolescents, the prevalence of AST was 37% and the prevalence of suicide attempts was 11.60%. Adolescents who engaged in AST were less likely to have suicide attempts irrespective of gender. The country-wise analysis indicated a large inconsistency in the association between AST and suicide attempt across the countries. Conclusions: AST would appear to be a protective factor for reducing suicide attempts among adolescents. However, the association between AST and suicide attempts varied greatly across the countries. Future studies should confirm the association between AST and suicide attempts.