A conceptual model of strong school-based interventions is presented. Strong interventions are ecological in nature, naturalistic in scope, contain elements from the research base that are predictive for success, and incorporate the constructs of social validity in a practical manner. The latter concept relates to the ideas of treatment acceptability and socially important outcomes, and is important for insuring treatment integrity. While there exists a robust research data base for effective school interventions, generalization to regular school settings without the overriding influence of researcher/consultant is difficult. Thus, all of these concepts must be practically utilized if strong interventions are to be applied to school problems. Suggestions and implications for school psychology practitioners are discussed.
Problem clarification and analysis are basic problem solving steps that address the fundamental question of what to change. The analysis of keystone child behaviors and other keystone events is a conceptual and research-based target variable selection strategy within the problem solving process. Keystone behaviors have been defined as (a) pivotal behaviors associated with response classes of maladaptive behaviors that can positively influence other child behaviors; (b) behaviors that result in other beneficial collateral child, peer, and adult outcomes; and (c) foundation skills necessary for adaptation to present and future environments. Stated differently, keystone variables represent relatively narrow targets for change having the most widespread benefits to clients. Within the context of ecological consultation and systems analysis, the term keystone variable, rather than behavior, is suggested because of the broad range of potential targets for efforts at permanent change and to acknowledge that such targets often go beyond presenting child problems. The hypothesized benefits of selecting keystone targets for change include more effective and efficient interventions.The design of interventions for childhood problems most often takes place through consultation with parents and teachers (Gutkin & Curtis, 1990;Kratochwill & Bergan, 1990). In consultation, the problem solving process leads the analysis of problem situations to the consideration of desired changes in parent, teacher, peer,The authors would like to thank Sabrina A. Petrelli for editorial assistance. The preparation of this manuscript was partially supported by a grant from the Ohio Department of Education, Division of Early Childhood.
The current Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association indicates that the sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability status of research participants should be reported. The present study found that most (90.6%) of the manuscripts describing clinical interventions and published from 2013-2015 in five journals sympathetic to behavior analysis reported the sex of participants. Fewer such articles described participants' disability status (69.1%), race/ethnicity (10.7%), or socioeconomic status (2.8%). Although there is general agreement that participant characteristics likely to influence responsiveness to the intervention being examined should be reported, there apparently is no agreement as to whether race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability status constitute such characteristics. The purpose of this article is to encourage authors, reviewers, editors, and readers of behavioranalytic research articles to consider which characteristics of participants merit reporting and the consequences of not consistently reporting those characteristics.
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