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J Appl Behav Anal. 1976 Summer; 9(2): 213–219.
doi: 10.1901/jaba.1976.9-213.
PMCID: PMC1311930
Evaluation of family intervention through unobtrusive audio recordings: experiences in “bugging” children1
Stephen M. Johnson, Andrew Christensen, and G. Tom Bellamy
University of Oregon
1This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grants MH 19633 and MH 25298. The authors would like to express their appreciation to Russell Glasgow and James Whinston who assisted in the completion of various aspects of this work and to Kay Royce and Jan Sanchez who coded the tapes. Reprints may be obtained from Stephen M. Johnson, Department of Psychology, Straub Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403.
Abstract
Five children referred to a child-family intervention program wore a radio transmitter in the home during pre-intervention and termination assessments. The transmitter broadcast to a receiver-recording apparatus in the home (either activated by an interval timer at predetermined “random” times or by parents at predetermined “picked” times). “Picked” times were parent-selected situations during which problems typically occurred (e.g., bedtime). Parents activated the recorder regularly whether or not problems occurred. Child-deviant, parent-negative, and parent-commanding behaviors were significantly higher at the picked times during pretest than at random times. At posttest, behaviors in all three classes were substantially reduced at picked times, but not at random times. For individual subject data, reductions occurred in at least two of the three dependent variables for three of the five cases during random time assessments. In general, the behavioral outcome data corresponded to parent-attitude reports and parent-collected observation data.
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Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
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