Date of Award:

5-1976

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

William R. Dobson

Committee

William R. Dobson

Committee

Morris K. Morgret

Committee

Robert Moran

Committee

Poll Oakey

Abstract

This study attempts to test the effectiveness of two treatment modalities for adolescent residents of the Intermediate Care Facility at St. Anthony, Idaho.

The study was conducted at the Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) at St. Anthony, Idaho. The St. Anthony ICF is a separate yet distinct part of the Youth Services Center in the same area.

The participants of this study were 20 emotionally disturbed adolescents who were randomly assigned to two treatment groups (10 participants in each group). The participants of both groups were shown to be homogeneous with regards to severity of emotional disturbance, family background, race, sex, age, and offense leading to institutionalization.

Both groups of subjects were observed for 7 days during both base line and data line observation periods by pairs of trained observers. These observers monitored the frequency of occurrence of nine specific misbehaviors which fell into three general categories of behavior, i.e., category one: passive-withdrawal, category two: overt-hostility, and, category three: manipulation. The reliability between pairs of observers for base line and data line observation period ranged between .82 and .98.

During the 6-week treatment phase of the study, one group of subjects (E1 group) received intensive individual, group, recreational and vocational therapy, while the second experimental group (E2 group) received intensive individual, group, recreational and vocational therapy coupled with self monitoring plus a 5-day training in the recognition of inappropriate behaviors.

Both the E1 and E2 group participants showed a significant overall decrease in the frequency of misbehaviors for all three categories combined when each group was considered separately on base line and data line observations. However, when the three general categories were considered separately for each experimental group, the E1 group participants showed a significant reduction in only one of the three categories--category one, passive-withdrawal. Whereas, the E2 group participants showed a significant reduction in the frequency of misbehavior in all three categories when base line and data line frequencies were compared. When the E1 group is compared with the E2 group for the greatest amount of reduction of misbehaviors after treatment, the treatment modality applied to the E2 group was significantly more effective in reducing the frequency of misbehavior than was the treatment modality which was applied to the E1 group participants.

The results of this study seem to indicate that for this sample, a treatment modality which combines intensive individual, group, recreational and vocational therapy with self-monitoring plus training in the recognition of inappropriate behaviors is significantly more effective in reducing the frequency of misbehaviors than is a treatment which employs only intensive individual, group, recreational and vocational therapy techniques.

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