A comparison of antecedent and consequent based interventions in elementary school students

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-69)Students with chronic disruptive behavior represent a small portion of a school's population, yet they often account for over 50% of the schools behavioral incidents. However, research in applied behavior analysis has demonstrated that disruptive behavior may be reduced or eliminated through the utilization of either consequent or antecedent-based interventions. The current study conducted a functional assessment on four, fourth grade students to determine the function of their disruptive behavior. Two of the participants displayed attention-seeking and two displayed task-avoidance, as a function of their behavior. One of the attention-seeking and one of the task-avoidant students were randomly assigned either an antecedent or consequence-based treatment strategy, the remaining participants were assigned to the opposite intervention respective to the function of their behavior. The current study utilized single-case methodology and employed a within series, ABAB reversal design (comparative study) to assess the effects of the antecedent and consequence-based treatment strategies. Results demonstrated that antecedent-based interventions strategies were as effective as consequent-based intervention strategies for reducing disruptive behaviors while concomitantly increasing academic engagement in general education students displaying disruptive behaviors