Does knowing translate to doing? Practitioners’ experiences of Circle of Security-Parenting (COS-P) training and implementation

This study sought to understand how practitioners perceive and experience the Circle of Security-Parenting (COS-P) training, and further, how they integrate and implement it into practice, and how these experiences influence their use and understanding of the program and its underlying model. A thematic analysis of semistructured interviews at two time points (shortly after training and 3–6 months after training) was used to explore 12 practitioners’ experiences of COS-P training and subsequent implementation. Three main themes were identified; clinical salience, personal salience, and partial use of the program. The findings reflected participants’ common perception that the model is relevant and generalizable to a wide variety of contexts. It also highlighted potential barriers to implementation, particularly practitioners’ experiences using only components of the COS-P program in isolation. The results suggest practitioners’ assumptions about client complexities, vulnerabilities, and/or incapacities, can prompt practitioners to withhold the use of COS-P (in part or whole), thereby potentially neglecting key components required for client change. The only participants who implemented the COS-P training in full had additional training in Circle of Security.     

幼儿观看电视时间、节目类型及父母监督情况的初步调查研究

本研究调查了幼儿电视观看的现状以及父母对他们看电视的监督情况、结果发现,幼儿的电视观看时间普遍很长,他们所观看的节目类型受年龄和性别的影响;幼儿的言语发展与电视观看之间关系密切;父母对幼儿的电视观看时间和节目类型基本上不限制,他们鼓励幼儿看电视,而且通常是看些成人节目,因此可知对家长的监督工作提供指导是很必要和迫切的.针对上述调查结果,研究者提出了几点建议.以期各位家长及有关人员能够重视这个被疏忽的重要问题——电视监督(家长监督).     

关于心理表象训练新程序的探讨

本论文对日本新近开发的心理表象训练程序(简称MITP)进行了概要的介绍,并在此基础上分析讨论了有关表象训练的理论问题,认为动觉表象、视觉表象和想象表象的有机结合运用是提高心理训练效果的良好途径,但如何提高练习者的表象机能水平(如表象的清晰准确性、鲜明生动性以及对表象的操作控制能力等)则是表象训练所面临的最大难题。     

‘On-the ground’ strategy matrix for fostering quality participation experiences among persons with disabilities in community-based exercise programs

ObjectiveThe purposes of this paper are to (1) document the generation and refinement of a quality participation strategy list to ensure resonance and applicability within community-based exercise programs (CBEPs) for persons with physical and intellectual disabilities, and (2) identify theoretical links between strategies and the quality participation constructs.MethodsTo address purpose one, a list of strategies to foster quality participation among members was extracted from qualitative interviews with providers from nine CBEPs serving persons with physical disabilities. Next, providers from CBEPs serving persons with physical (n = 9) and intellectual disabilities (n = 6) were asked to identify the strategies used, and examples of their implementation, within their programs. Additional strategies noted by providers and in recent published syntheses were added to the preliminary list. A re-categorization and revision process was conducted. To address purpose two, 22 researchers with expertise in physical and/or intellectual disability, physical activity, participation and/or health behaviour change theory completed a closed-sort task to theoretically link each strategy to the constructs of quality participation.ResultsThe final list of 85 strategies is presented in a matrix. Each strategy has explicit examples and proposed theoretical links to the constructs of quality participation.ConclusionsThe strategy matrix offers a theoretically-meaningful representation of how quality participation-enhancing strategies can be practically implemented “on-the-ground” in CBEPs for persons with disabilities.     

The effects of a cooperation contingency on behavior in a continuous three-person environment

Five groups of three subjects resided for 10 or 15 days within a continuously programmed environment. Subjects followed a programmatic arrangement of required and optional private and social activities that determined the individual and group baseline behaviors into which experimental operations were introduced and withdrawn. A cooperation condition was in effect when all three subjects were required to select simultaneous access to a group area before it became available for use. A noncooperation condition was in effect when access to a group area could be selected by individual subjects, without regard to the other subjects' selections. For all groups, the effects of these two conditions on individual and group behaviors were investigated in reversal designs where several successive days occurred under each condition. Groups 1, 4, and 5 had the noncooperation condition interposed between cooperation conditions. Groups 2 and 3 had the cooperation condition interposed between noncooperation conditions. Durations of triadic activities, per cent of time in triadic activities, intercom use, and intersubject program synchronization were greater during cooperation conditions than during noncooperation conditions. These data show that a cooperation contingency within the behavioral program affected both social behavior and the collateral individual behavior necessary to execute the cooperation response.     

A TOKEN REINFORCEMENT PROGRAM IN A PUBLIC JUNIOR-HIGH SCHOOL1

In recent years, the technology of contingency management has been shown to be of increasing value in regular classrooms and public-school systems with both groups and individual pupils (Ayllon and Roberts, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1974, 7 , 71–76; Glynn and Thomas, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1974, 7 , 299–306; Lovitt and Curtiss, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1969, 2 , 49–53; Lovitt and Smith, Exceptional Children, 1974, 40 , 357–358; Medland and Stachnik, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1972, 5 , 45–51). In addition, established procedures are being systematically replicated across grade levels and differing subject-matter areas. A series of studies initiated by O'Leary and Becker (Exceptional Children, 1967, 33 , 637–642) form the basis for the present investigation. The token reinforcement program described by O'Leary and Becker (Exceptional Children, 1967, 33 , 637–642) was managed by the teacher of an adjustment class and involved 9-yr-old children described as emotionally disturbed. An elaborate replication of the 1967 O'Leary and Becker study conducted by O'Leary, Becker, Evans, and Saudargas (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1969, 2 , 3–31) with a grade-two class introduced several variables to examine their separate effects. The authors specified their treatment levels as baseline, classroom rules, educational structure, teacher praise and ignore, token I, withdrawal, token II, and follow-up. The present research modified the general design of O'Leary et al., (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1969, 2 , 3–31) to study how to maintain treatment effects. In the modification, rules were eliminated as a treatment variable because they are frequently associated with aversive practices in the school system, and it was deemed desirable to have mainly a positive orientation. A second difference was that the present subjects were grade-nine pupils functioning in the regular public-school system. The six students were older (average age = 16.2) and well behind their peers in achievement. They were considered behavior problems and as potential dropouts by teachers and counsellors. They were not considered to be emotionally disturbed. Finally, procedures designed to maintain behavior change generated by the token system were added. The operant level of unacceptable classroom behavior was obtained for six students receiving an individualized program of instruction in mathematics and science in a nonacademic grade-nine class in a public junior secondary school. Initially, two conditions (educational structure and praising appropriate behavior while ignoring inappropriate behavior) were introduced successively. Both procedures reduced inappropriate behavior slightly. When a token system, using backup reinforcers readily available in the school, was introduced in conjunction with the initial two conditions, inappropriate responses declined dramatically in all subjects. Withdrawal of the token program for a three-week period, leaving educational structure and praising and ignoring in effect, increased inappropriate behavior in five of the six subjects. The token program was then re-introduced in conjunction with contingency contracts. The result was a decline of inappropriate behavior below the mean of the first token condition for all subjects. Tokens were thinned and finally removed toward the end of this condition, leaving teacher praise and attention and the contract system in effect. Data obtained during a four-week followup indicated that the low level of inappropriate behavior was maintained in all subjects. This extension of the O'Leary et al., (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1969, 2 , 3–31) program, designed and implemented by the regular teacher, demonstrates that these procedures may be highly effective within the constraints found in an ordinary classroom in the junior secondary school.     

AN EVALUATION OF TEACHING-FAMILY (ACHIEVEMENT PLACE) GROUP HOMES FOR JUVENILE OFFENDERS

Juvenile crime is a serious problem for which no treatment approach has been found to be reliably effective. This outcome evaluation assessed during and posttreatment effectiveness of Teaching-Family group home treatment programs for juvenile offenders. The evaluation included the original Achievement Place program, which was the prototype for the development of the Teaching-Family treatment approach, 12 replications of Achievement Place, and 9 comparison group home programs. Primary dependent measures were retrieved from court and police files and included number of alleged offenses, percentage of youths involved in those alleged offenses, and percentage of youths institutionalized. Other dependent measures were subjective ratings of effectiveness obtained from the program consumers, including the group home residents. The results showed difference during treatment favoring the Teaching-Family programs on rate of alleged criminal offenses, percentage of youths involved in those offenses, and consumer ratings of the programs. The consumer ratings provided by the youths and their school teachers were found to be inversely and significantly correlated with the reduction of criminal offenses during treatment. There were no significant differences during treatment on measures of noncriminal offenses (e.g., truancy, runaway, and curfew violations). In the posttreatment year, none of the differences between the groups was significant on any of the outcome measures. The results are discussed in terms of measurement and design issues in the evaluation of delinquency treatment programs and in relation to the evaluation of Teaching-Family group homes by Richard Jones and his colleagues.     

Opening the Black Box: Using Process Evaluation Measures to Assess Implementation and Theory Building

The past decade has seen increasing recognition in prevention science of the need to move away from a black box approach to intervention evaluation and toward an approach that can elaborate on the mechanisms through which changes in the outcomes operate (Chen & Rossi, 1989; Durlak & Wells, 1997; Spoth et al., 1995). An approach that examines issues of program implementation is particularly critical in the design of efficacy studies of school-based preventive interventions. Numerous preventive intervention strategies are now delivered within the schools, often by regular classroom teachers. The extent to which teachers faithfully deliver a particular curriculum or incorporate instructional strategies emphasized by an intervention is a critical question for the overall project evaluation. This article illustrates the utilization of process measures from a multicomponent school-based prevention program to examine implementation of a teaching staff development intervention, and the program's underlying theoretical basis. Given the nested study design, the analyses utilize hierarchical linear models (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992) to examine changes in teaching strategies by condition and investigate the hypothesized relationships between teaching practices and student behaviors based on the program's theoretical framework. Results suggest that teaching practices in two of the six intervention focus areas were positively impacted in the first 18 months of the project. Findings also support th relationships between teachers' instructional practices and students' behaviour.     

Predictors of champion behaviors in an evidence-based parenting program: A structural equation modeling approach

The importance of champions in the implementation of evidence-based public health programs has been well established. Champions perform a range of behaviors which can have significant influence on the adoption and sustainability of interventions. This study investigates champion behaviors in parenting practitioners with the aim to provide insight into the range and extent that practitioners engage in champion behaviors and to examine predictors of practitioners' champion behaviors using structural equation modeling. Data were collected during a large international implementation survey of 1606 practitioners trained to deliver an evidence-based parenting program, the triple P—Positive Parenting Program. We developed a 13-item Champion Behaviors Scale which was administered alongside other measures of predictors of implementation outcomes. Perceived usefulness of the program was the most important facilitator of both public and personal champion behaviors. Certain desirable features of the program tended to not only be positively associated with the perceived usefulness of the program, but also had a unique impact on practitioners' personal champion behaviors. Higher positions within organizations were linked with more public champion behaviors. Although organizational support was found to be unrelated to champion behaviors in the structural model, it facilitated other predictors of champion behaviors.