A Case Study Examining Fixed Versus Randomized Criteria for Treating a Child With Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits

Abstract

Children with conduct problems and callous unemotional traits (CPCU) seem to show a decreased response to behavioral treatment (Hawes, Price, & Dadds, 2014). It was hypothesized that children with CPCU may respond differently to behavior therapy when the target behavior criteria are fixed a priori versus when the target behavior criteria are randomly determined post hoc. A single-case study experiment was conducted as an initial step toward investigating this hypothesis. The study was conducted using a daily report card implemented in the context of an intensive behavioral summer treatment program. Results indicated that rates of negative behaviors were higher when rewards were delivered using randomly determined levels of target behaviors as compared to using fixed levels of target behaviors. Results suggest the importance of providing children with CPCU specific and predictable treatment goals when using contingency management procedures. Additional research that examines how children with CPCU react to components of behavioral treatment may help improve their response to behavior therapy.

A Pilot Study of Emotional Response to Time-Out in Children With Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits

“…The STP has strong empirical support in treating children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and CP (Kolko, Bukstein, & Barron, 1999; Pelham et al., 2000). The efficacy of the STP in treating children with CPCU has also been examined, with results suggesting that this intensive behavioral treatment may be less effective for this population of children than for children with CP-only (Haas et al., 2011; Miller et al., 2014; Waschbusch et al., 2016; Waschbusch, Carrey, Willoughby, King, & Andrade, 2007), although this partially depends on how “treatment response” is defined (i.e., Bansal et al., 2019). Overall, these findings seem to suggest that children with CPCU have a limited positive response to behavior therapy.…”