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Prevalence of renewal of problem behavior during context changes
Author(s) -
Muething Colin,
Call Nathan,
Pavlov Alexis,
Ringdahl Joel,
Gillespie Scott,
Clark Seth,
Mevers Joanna Lomas
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1002/jaba.672
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , psychology , behavior change , session (web analytics) , social environment , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , computer science , biology , paleontology , world wide web , political science , law
Renewal is defined as the reemergence of a previously eliminated behavior following a context change. Determining the prevalence of this effect in clinical practice would allow clinicians to better anticipate the reemergence of problem behavior, such as when a patient is discharged from a treatment facility to return to their home. The current consecutive, case‐series analysis determined the prevalence and magnitude of renewal when implementing behavioral treatments for problem behavior. Across 182 context changes, renewal was observed 77 times (42.3%). In the first session following the context change, problem behavior rates increased by a factor of 3 and then decreased across successive sessions. These results indicated that renewal effects may be common, but are also transient and return to rates observed before context changes.