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Using a Nonconcurrent Multiple-Baseline Across-Participants Design to Examine the Effects of Individualized ACT at School

  • Special Issue: Acceptance and Commitment Training in Behavior Analysis
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A Correction to this article was published on 08 July 2021

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Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of implementing acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with three students who displayed disruptive and off-task behaviors in a classroom. A nonconcurrent multiple-baseline across-participants design with an embedded reversal was used to compare the effects of individualized ACT exercises and treatment-control conditions on classroom behaviors that included on-task behavior, vocal disruption, physical aggression, and classroom disruption. Classroom behaviors were measured during 5-min direct observations using continuous 30-s interval recording. During baseline, all participants displayed low levels of on-task engagement and high or varying rates of challenging behaviors. When the individualized ACT intervention was implemented, participants’ on-task and challenging behaviors improved compared to baseline and treatment-control conditions; treatment-control conditions produced mixed results. Implications for school-based treatment programs and collaborative transdisciplinary intervention strategies are discussed.

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Notes

  1. ABC narrative recording data are available upon request.

  2. The second author completed didactic and lecture-based trainings on ACT, worked for 1 year as a graduate assistant on other ACT-related projects, and received weekly supervision from the first author for the duration of all study procedures.

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Author Note

This project was completed by Emily Dzugan in partial fulfillment of the master’s degree from Saint Louis University. The authors wish to thank Dr. Thomas Szabo for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Funding

This study was not funded with any external funds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles Campus, 707 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90017, USA

    Alyssa N. Wilson

  2. School of Social Work, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Emily Dzugan & Victoria D. Hutchinson

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  1. Alyssa N. Wilson
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  2. Emily Dzugan
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  3. Victoria D. Hutchinson
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Correspondence to Alyssa N. Wilson.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Research Highlights

• Brief individualized acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) facilitates increased engagement in on-task behaviors in a classroom setting.

• ACT produced higher rates of on-task engagement during the individualized ACT intervention phase for all participants when compared to treatment-control conditions.

• ACT is an effective strategy to include within school-based treatment programs to improve various behaviors.

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Wilson, A.N., Dzugan, E. & Hutchinson, V.D. Using a Nonconcurrent Multiple-Baseline Across-Participants Design to Examine the Effects of Individualized ACT at School. Behav Analysis Practice 15, 141–154 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00558-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00558-8

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