Luanne R. Witherup, Timothy R. Vollmer, Carole M. Van Camp, Han-Leong Goh,
John C. Borrero, & Kristin Mayfield. (2008)
Baseline measurement of running away among youth in foster care.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
41, 305-318.
The current study evaluated the use of various behavioral measures of running away with regard
to (a) the differential utility of interval- versus event-based measures, (b) the differential utility of
rate versus duration measures, (c) the utility of correcting for occurrence opportunity, and
(d) the influence of unit of analysis (i.e., single-subject vs. grouped data). Seven different
baseline measures were calculated for 84 runaways, and a unit-size analysis was conducted by
constructing groups of various sizes from the original sample. An expert panel evaluated the suitability
of the baseline measures for treatment evaluation. Results demonstrate the utility of evaluating
duration-based measures and correcting for occurrence opportunity. Results also indicate that
single-subject baselines may often be unacceptable for treatment evaluations, regardless of the
type of measure selected for use.
DESCRIPTORS: baseline measures, foster care, running away