ACADEMIC EFFECTS OF PROVIDING PEER SUPPORT IN GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSROOMS ON STUDENTS WITHOUT DISABILITIES

We studied the academic effects on peers without disabilities of serving as peer supports for students with disabilities in general education classrooms. Three peers were studied using a range of indicators, including academic engagement, coursework performance, and social validity assessments. Peers assisting a student with disabilities via curricular adaptation, assignment completion, and social facilitation constituted the multicomponent independent variable. We used withdrawal or multiple baseline designs to demonstrate positive benefits for peers for all measures used. In addition, follow-up data for 2 peers indicated that the positive changes associated with serving as a peer support were maintained for up to 2 months. Our results are discussed in relation to the possible academic and social effects of providing peer supports in general education classrooms for students with and without disabilities.     

Psychometric Properties of the Power of Food Scale in a Community Sample of Preadolescents and Adolescents

The Power of Food Scale (PFS) was developed to assess hedonic hunger, or how individuals think and feel about food and eating in the absence of metabolic need. The measure was originally developed and validated in two adult samples, and recent preliminary support has been provided for the validity in a sample of preadolescents. The aim of the current study was to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the PFS in a community sample of preadolescents and adolescents to examine the psychometric properties in youth. Participants were 148 youth ages 11–18 (M = 12.85) from two Midwestern communities in the United States. Participants completed the PFS to assess for hedonic hunger. Structural equation modeling was used to conduct multiple CFAs to test varying factor structures of the PFS in preadolescents and adolescents. Results suggested that the scale was best represented by the previously established 15-item version of the measure with an aggregate domain and three subscales based on food proximity (i.e., food available, food present, and food tasted). Results from the CFA revealed that the measurement model had a close fit (RMSEA = 0.033, CFI = 0.985). Cronbach’s α for the total scale and the three subscales ranged from 0.86 to 0.95. Findings suggest that the previously established factor structure of the 15-item PFS best represents the factor structure of the measure in a community sample of preadolescents and adolescents.     

General Education Participation Improves the Social Contacts and Friendship Networks of Students with Severe Disabilities

One desired outcome of inclusive education is the enhanced social development of students with disabilities. Some have suggested that planned and systematic support of students with severe disabilities in general education environments may lead to greater social interaction between these students and their peers without disabilities. In an effort to analyze this proposition, we studied two students with severe disabilities as they began participating in general education classrooms. Using within-student multiple baseline designs across class periods, the effects of participating in general education were studied across a range of social participation indicator variables. Our results suggest that planned and systematic efforts to include students with severe disabilities into general education courses can have positive effects on their social contacts and friendship networks. Our findings are discussed in relation to policy efforts to establish inclusive education in public schools, strategies for structuring general education participation, and the potential effects such efforts can have on the social inclusion of students with disabilities.     

The justification and selection of scientific theories

This paper is a critique of a project, outlined by Laudan et al. (1986) recently in this journal, for empirically testing philosophical models of change in science by comparing them against the historical record of actual scientific practice. While the basic idea of testing such models of change in the arena of science is itself an appealing one, serious questions can be raised about the suitability of seeking confirmation or disconfirmation for large numbers of specific theses drawn from a massive list of claims abstracted from the writings of a few philosophers of science. The present paper discusses what one might reasonably expect from a model of change in science and then compares some clusters of theses from Laudan et al. with developments in recent theoretical physics. The results suggest that such straightforward testing of theses may be largely inconclusive.The research reported in this paper was partially supported by NSF grants SES-8318884 and SES-8606472. A preliminary version of this paper was read at the Conference on Testing Theories of Scientific Change held at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, October 20–22, 1986.     

COMPLIANCE TRAINING AND BEHAVIORAL COVARIATION IN THE TREATMENT OF MULTIPLE BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

The present study investigated the use of a compliance-training procedure and its effect on untreated deviant child behaviors. Three children, each generally noncompliant to adult requests and with several additional problems, such as crying, aggression, and self-injurious behavior, were trained in the compliance procedure under a multiple-baséline design across therapists. Compliance was defined as the correct response to prespecified requests. Other classes of deviant child behavior were measured continuously throughout the study but not directly reinforced. The results of the study showed that (a) increases in compliance to requests were directly related to the contingencies employed; (b) decreases in untreated deviant behaviors occurred when compliance increased, even though no direct contingencies had been placed on these behaviors; and (c) the relationship between untreated deviant behaviors and compliance appeared to be maintained by a different set of events in each of the three children. The results are discussed in terms of behavioral covariation and generalization.     

Adult Influence on the Participation of Peers Without Disabilities in Peer Support Programs

Three peers without disabilities who volunteered to serve as peer supports and were identified by general education teachers as having academic difficulties were studied across three conditions. In baseline, a peer without disabilities worked alone, while the student with severe disabilities was supervised by an adult. In the Peer Support condition, peers without disabilities worked with the student with severe disabilities, and both individuals were supervised by an adult. In the Adult Involvement condition, peers without disabilities were supervised by an adult as in the Peer Support condition, but peers worked separately from the student with severe disabilities. Dependent measures included the active engagement of peers without disabilities and students with severe disabilities, and social interactions between students and peers. Our data indicate that the Peer Support and Adult Involvement conditions resulted in higher, but similar, levels of active engagement for two of three peers without disabilities when compared to baseline. For the third peer, high levels of active engagement occurred across all conditions. Active engagement varied across students with severe disabilities, but was typically highest in conditions where peers without disabilities were involved. For all students with severe disabilities, social interactions were more frequent and longer in the Peer Support condition.     

Effects of sleep deprivation on free-operant avoidance

Two studies examined effects of sleep deprivation on free-operant avoidance by rats. In Experiment 1, a 5-s shock-shock (SS) interval and 20-s response-shock (RS) interval produced baseline performances, which were reestablished after each experimental manipulation. Once baselines were established, animals were exposed to 24, 48, or 96 hr of sleep deprivation and equivalent periods of home cage and food restriction as a control condition. Compared to baseline, sleep deprivation increased response rates by increasing the proportion of brief interresponse times (IRTs); response rates changed little in the control conditions. Percentage of shocks avoided did not systematically change across conditions. In Experiment 2, the RS interval was manipulated (10, 20, and 40 s), while the SS interval (5 s) and level of sleep deprivation (48 hr) were held constant. Across RS intervals, sleep deprivation increased response rates via a shift toward brief IRTs. In addition, sleep deprivation increased the percentage of shocks avoided as an inverse function of RS intervals.     

Profiles and Correlates of Children’s Self-Reported Coping Strategies Using a Cluster Analytic Approach

We used cluster analysis to identify children’s coping profiles and to examine self- and parent-reported correlates of coping in a community sample. Participants included 135 children (M age = 11.27, s.d. = .59) recruited from local public elementary and junior high schools and 116 of their parents. Analyses included hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward’s method), followed by non-hierarchical (k-means) cluster analysis to confirm the cluster solution. Results yielded four clusters reflecting high, active, low, and indiscriminant patterns of coping strategies. Members of the active coping group self-reported the fewest symptoms of distress and the greatest number of prosocial competencies after controlling for social desirability. No differences emerged for parent-reported psychosocial functioning across coping profiles. Our results suggest that a combination of active coping strategies may be associated with better psychosocial functioning than a combination of active and avoidant coping strategies.     

Latent Variable Mixture Modeling of Ecological Momentary Assessment Data: Implications for Screening and Adolescent Mood Profiles

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies typically rely on arbitrary decision rules for identifying and excluding invalid responses from the data. In addition, most studies treat independent variables as separate from each other even if their combinations might have importance above the independent contribution of each. Our study aimed to conduct an exploratory latent profile analysis of EMA data to demonstrate an empirical method of identifying invalid responses, and to provide a preliminary investigation of mood profiles. We recruited 20 adolescents between the ages of 13–18 to complete 4 surveys about their internal states each day for 20 days. Participants provided responses on study smartphones using an Android app developed by the study team. Our profile analysis revealed 9 independent profiles. We determined that 3 of these profiles consisted of invalid responses because the integers provided by the participant were nearly invariant. The invalid responses comprised 24.9% of the sample. We also identified 6 valid profiles that were labeled: fatigued (8.7%), good mood/energetic (19.9%), angry/depressed (2.3%), good mood (37.1%), angry (5.7%), and depressed (1.4%). One important implication of the current study is that researchers and clinicians should screen electronic diary data, especially for invariant responding. In addition, it is important for clinicians to note that more than one internal state may drive the mood of an adolescent patient.