Contingency Contracting With Delinquents: Effects of a Brief Training Manual on Staff Contract Negotiation and Writing Skills

Abstract

A brief training manual was developed for the purpose of teaching child-care workers to contingency contract with delinquent youths living in residential care facilities. The manual was designed to require minimal supplementary training by a professional. In Experiment 1 a multiple baseline design was used to assess the effect of the manual on 4 child-care workers' contract negotiation and writing behaviors. Experiment 2 consisted of four A-B systematic replications. Behaviors were assessed within the context of analogue training simulations and generalization tests with delinquent youths. Results from the analogue simulations indicated that the manual was successful in increasing both types of behaviors to a level of proficiency that equaled or surpassed that of behaviorally trained graduate students, and results from the generalization tests indicated that the child-care workers were able to apply their newly acquired contracting skills with delinquent youths. Procedural reliability varied across child-care workers, but was usually high.

One size does not fit all: A systematic review of training outcomes on residential youth care professionals' skills

“…(Edens, 1998;Edens & Smit, 1992). Psychology graduate students served as a comparison group in one study (Welch & Holborn, 1988). In another study the trainees were youth care worker supervisors (Bonsutto, 1993).…”

“…A quasiexperimental design was used in three studies (25%). The quasi-experimental design of Moleiro, Marques and Pacheco (2011) (Crosland et al, 2008;Welch & Holborn, 1988), where repeated-measurements during the pre-training and post-training periods were performed to assess the behaviour of the youth care workers. Lamanna (1992) design was used to study their knowledge and attitudes.…”

“…The aims of the training programmes varied across the studies, although most of them aimed to improve the trainees' skills and knowledge. The duration of the programmes varied between less than one hour (Welch & Holborn, 1988) and 45 hours, divided across several sessions (Edens & Smit, 1992). Ten training courses consisted of a number of training sessions or individual meetings with a trainer.…”

“…Ten training courses consisted of a number of training sessions or individual meetings with a trainer. The training in one study consisted of studying a manual with or without additional feedback (Welch & Holborn, 1988). Online training was followed in the study by Poland (2007).…”

Pedagogy of Academic Narrative: Insights from They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Graff and Birkenstein (2014)

“…Although it is true that behavior scientists have sought to teach reading and writing (e.g., seeDelano, 2007;Greer & Ross, 2004;Spear & Fields, 2016;Tripiana-Barbosa & Souza, 2015;Walker & Rehfeldt, 2012;Welch & Holborn, 1988), most often this work has focused on isolated skills in special populations or very young learners.…”