Youths as Behavior Change Agents in an Institution

Abstract

Behavioral studies have shown that youths in various settings can function effectively as behavior change agents. The study used five 15 to 18 year old male youths in a closed institutional setting as behavior change agents for five male youth counselors. Youths specified staff behaviors they wanted to change, collected frequency data on each specified staff behavior, and suggested and implemented treatments to change staff behavior. A multiple baseline design across staff members was used to demonstrate the effects of youths' interventions on staff behaviors. Staff increased their frequency of positive verbal comments and decreased their frequency of negative verbal comments regarding loss of privileges following one-time feedback from youths regarding staffs baseline frequency of responses. Two staff members received a second treatment consisting of verbal feedback and praise immediately following each data collection session. This treatment for the behaviors of positive and negative comments was too short to test the effect on them. The second treatment was longer for threats and decreased staffs frequency of threats to a near-zero rate. Follow-up revealed that frequency of responses did not return to the baseline rate in most cases.