Robert G. Wahler, Vanessa Ann Vigilante, & Paul S. Strand (2004).
Generalization in a child’s oppositional behavior across home and school settings.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
37, 43-51.
A 9-year-old clinic-referred boy, his mother, and his teacher were observed
in 38 home and 38 school sessions on the same days. Categories of the boy’s oppositional behavior
and the inappropriate social attention of his mother and teacher were graphed to visually inspect
changes during baseline, a parent-training phase, a follow-up phase, and a final parent-training
booster phase. Parent-training phases produced reductions in the mother’s inappropriate attention and
in the boy’s oppositional behavior, whereas the follow-up and baseline phases were associated with
higher rates of these categories. Generalization occurred in the school across these home phases, as
seen in the increase in rates of the boy’s problem behavior, despite the lack of change in his teacher’s
attention. Correlational analyses of proportion scores reflecting the boy’s home-school oppositional
behavior and mother-teacher social attention suggested his responsiveness to relative changes in
adult social contingencies across settings.
DESCRIPTORS: behavioral contrast, generalization, reinforcement, oppositional behavior,
mother-child interactions, teacher-child interactions