Shriver, M. D., & Allen, K. D. (1997).
Defining child noncompliance: An examination of temporal parameters.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
30, 173-176.
This study examined compliance parameters for 53 clinic-referred
and nonreferred children, ages 2 to 10 years. Although there were
significant differences between the referred and nonreferred
samples for percentage compliance, there were no significant
differences between the referred and nonreferred samples in terms
of initiation or completion latencies. The average initiation
latency was 5.92 s, whereas 98% of the sample initiated
compliance within 14 s. Younger children did take longer to
complete tasks. Results suggest that the use of short lat encies
in defining noncompliance may represent overly conservative
criteria.
DESCRIPTORS: parent training, initiation latency, compliance,
noncompliance