Association for Behavior Analysis International

This research involves a critique of the concept of childhood “pathologization” that has been given greater importance, mainly due to the increase in children diagnosed with disorders that did not exist before, which has given rise to a catalog of treatments that include behavioral management therapies on occasions accompanied by drugs, losing sight of the individuality of the minor and only attending to a clinical diagnosis. In the present study, the effect of a behavioral change program was designed, applied, and evaluated through Contingency Analysis to observe human behavior, whether it is valued as problematic or not. This research was carried out using an experimental ABC design in two primary school children, referred for presenting behaviors valued as "problem behaviors". The interventions were carried out in three phases: Analysis, application, and follow-up. The analysis shows that morphologically similar behaviors, defined by the teacher, should be addressed differently in each one, given their circumstances, and that approach does not depend on a diagnosis. The application phase consisted of the use of behavior modification techniques adjusted to each context. The results show a decrease of problems behaviors on intervention and follow-up phases. The discussion is based on Behavior Analysis Theory.

Although Acceptance and Commitment therapy or Training (ACT) derives from behavior analytic principles, ACT has only recently become popular amongst behavior analysts. Although an incredibly large body of research already exist, supporting its utility to produce meaningful behavior change, most of the studies are conducted outside behavior analytic settings. The current project examines the state of ACT research conducted within the field of behavior analysis. Preliminary results suggest that the majority of empirical research conducted on ACT within behavior analytic journals (N = 36) has not been conducted by behavior analysts (n = 9). The current study also examines participant demographics, types experimental designs used, dependent variables, and the types of interventions implemented. Our brief review suggests that more empirical research is needed to examine the direct effect of ACT among diverse clinical populations typically served by behavior analysts.

Moreso than in most medical problems and health crisis situations, leaders of many and diverse disciplines repeatedly cite “changes in behavior” as the mainstay of addressing the challenges of the Covid 19 pandemic. Given the lack of preventative, protective, and treatment modalities, the importance of behavior and habit change by individuals and society becomes the most prominent “tool in the box,” and allows for empowerment of individuals, familys, organizations, and societies. This presentation highlights ways in which behavioral principles and techniques, especially when integrated with relevant principles of medicine and public health, can, and need to, be applied by clinicians and non clinicians to promote desired behaviors/habits including mask/PPE use (and techniques) and practicing social distancing,as well as remembering to NOT do many things we habitually do like shaking hands and holiday family gatherings. It applies as well to "private" behaviors of attitudes, opinions, knowledge (reality of the illness, safety of vaccines). The current pandemic serves as yet another opportunity for those most skilled in the principles and techniques of the management of behavior and development of habits to showcase the power of the discipline in making substantive desirable impacts on many phases of the Covid 19 pandemic, and the people affected by it.

Parental distress and coercive parent-child interactions are of major issues in our society. Cultural biases, stigma, and language barriers keep Asian-American parents and children away from mental and behavioral services. Behavior parent training as part of applied behavior analysis services is usually available to parents and children if their child has a diagnosis, but not for parents of children without diagnoses. Research in the area of parent-child interactions suggests a combination of behavior parent training and acceptance and commitment training as an effective preventative intervention alleviates parental distress and fosters positive parent-child interactions. However, limited research is available that examined the effectiveness of preventative acceptance and commitment training-based interventions for this population. Thus, the current study evaluated the effects of the individual acceptance and commitment training Matrix online training for Japanese-speaking distressed parents in the United States, using a single-subject design. Specific dependent variables measured were value-driven behaviors, parental engagement in treatment, parental distress, and psychological flexibility. The results revealed that the acceptance and commitment training Matrix training was effective in improving all four dependent variables. Parents reported that the training was culturally sensitive, effective, and appropriate in the social validity questionnaire.

Healthy eating is essential in combating diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Unfortunately, healthy eating has decreased with the decline of home-cooking and increased consumption of convenience foods. Research shows some indication that cooking interventions that contain social contingencies are more likely to have results that maintain and generalize to the home versus those that do not. The current study targeted meal preparation in the homes of college students utilizing an interdependent group contingency. 18 participants were divided into three groups, added to a social media group page, and required to post about their home cooking. The group contingency included a goal where all members of the group had to increase their number of weekly meals prepared in the home in order for all members of the group to receive monetary reinforcement. Results indicated that while the intervention initially increased meal preparation, these increases quickly declined. This is most likely due to group members failing to meet goal and not contacting reinforcement. However, further research is needed to determine if other group contingencies or goal levels may be more successful and utilizing social media groups may still have utility as it allows remote delivery of social consequences.

Physical inactivity continues to be a national health concern contributing to increased risk for mental and physical health problems in childhood (Reiner et al., 2013; Väistö et al., 2014). Environmental factors such as decreased activity and increased sedentary routine (i.e., video gaming and television watching) as well as social influence regarding physical activity among children are thought to contribute to and maintain the problematic unhealthy lifestyle trends (McKenzie et al., 1997; Väistö et al., 2014). Introduction to physical activity habits at a young age can help to promote beneficial lifelong health behaviors. Obesity prevention and physical activity intervention programs are often costly and require extensive resources to run (Chen & Wilkosz, 2014; Rivera et al., 2016). Recent advances in mobile technology, such as the Fitbit,® can potentially offer a cost-effective solution to increasing physical activity levels among children. Few research studies have been published on the effectiveness of Fitbit® use among young children. Even fewer studies have examined the impact that social influence, such as gamification or challenge features, have on the user’s level of physical activity. The current study was aimed at determining: the effectiveness of the Fitbit® with children and the impact of social influences on physical activity. Overall, it was found that the Fitbit® alone and when using its 24-hr challenge feature were ineffective at increasing step counts to recommended levels. Similarly, adding the goal, for two out of the three dyads, was ineffective at increasing step counts, and the one dyad who did respond to this component was found to have confounded data due to learning about the upcoming rewards phase. The addition of tangible rewards was only found to increase steps for two of the four participants who received them.

Tummy time is an activity for infants to practice their early motor skills. Although most pediatricians recommend tummy time, parents may avoid the procedures due to infant discomfort during this period. The present study investigated whether a preferred item increased head elevation and decrease negative vocalizations during tummy time with two typically developing infants. We compared more-preferred items identified using preference assessments to that of maternal attention. In addition, we evaluated social acceptability of the two procedures with the mothers in two ways. First, the mothers were given the direct opportunity to select which tummy time treatment they would like to implement in a concurrent chains design. Second, the mothers completed social validity questionnaires regarding their personal experiences. We found that more-preferred items and mother’s attention were effective at increasing head elevation and decreasing negative vocalizations during tummy time for both infants; however, the caregivers preferred the treatment including the more-preferred items.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of different diabetes diagnoses on sharing practices. Diabetes is a family of diagnoses that involves a dysfunction of the pancreas and impacted insulin levels. Different forms of diabetes include type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, and prediabetes. Diabetes is a health condition that may incur certain stigma and bias, and this may impact social interaction. Through this study, data collection was performed in order to surmise if there is a difference in sharing practices concerning diabetes diagnoses. It was hypothesized that sharing practices would be impacted by the types of diabetes diagnosis, versus control, in a negative manner. Using a between subject model, social discounting was tested at different social distances within each different group. The participants, university students, were divided into four different groups correlating to type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and control. Data was collected and analyzed. Through the use of different statistical analyses including non-parametric statistics, it was seen that there may be a difference between sharing for diabetes and non-diabetic individuals with participants trending towards being more willing to share with individuals diagnosed with diabetes.

Before the COVID19 pandemic, 20% of the children population was already at risk of showing problem behaviors associated with parents´ raising behaviors. Furthermore, we can study behavioral mechanisms through understanding behavioral learning principles underlying children´s choice of behaving. This paper describes the relationship between children´s behavior function and discounting of reinforcement in specific contexts as a pilot study. Thirteen scholar children, between 6 and 8 years old (M= 7; 69% were girls) took part in this preliminary study. The parents´ mean age was 34 years old (SD=6.01), 92% were women, and 100% were in confinement because of the COVID-19. We used the Children´s behavior inventory, the Alabama Questionnaire, the Probability of Compliance Occurrence Questionnaire, a Caregivers-children´s Observational System, and the Rabbat software version 2.0 (Escobar et al., 2020). We used a within-subject design to get the baseline thorough functional analysis situations (e.g., Waiting to receive reinforcement) and to assess the subjective value of reinforcement through delay, probability, and effort discounting tasks. We used Zoom®, Meet®, Visual Basic 10 Express®, and Google Forms® platforms, and accomplishing APA (2013) ethical guidelines. Mainly, results from the 104 behavioral patterns from the behavior´s functional analysis and the 780 trials of discounting task (260 temporal, 260 probability, and 260 effort discounting task) suggested children´s waiting to receive reinforcement negatively associated with opposition defiant, and hyperactivity behavior; both associated to effort and probability discounting (respectively). Furthermore, data indicated a generality of the children´s context choice effect over reinforcement devaluation when used the virtual rewards in computational environments and how different mechanisms of choice behavior resulted from the cost associated with the delivery of prizes. We have initiated to study the relationship between these subjective values of reinforcement, functional analysis of behavior, and choice procedures explaining children´s behaviors.