This study examined the effectiveness of individual behavioral skills training in conjunction with in situ training in teaching 13 preschool children abduction prevention skills. Children's performance was measured during baseline, training, and at 2-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups using in situ assessments in which abduction prevention skills were measured in naturalistic settings. Results revealed that all the children learned the skills and all the children available at the 2-week and 1-month follow-ups maintained the skills at criterion level. All but 3 children's criterion-level performances were maintained at the 3-month follow-up as well.DESCRIPTORS: behavioral skills training, children, abduction prevention skills, in situ training, in situ assessment
Research has shown that children often engage in gun play when they find a firearm and that this behavior is often involved in unintentional firearm injuries. Previous research has shown existing programs to be ineffective for teaching children safety skills to reduce gun play. This study examined the effectiveness of a behavioral skills training (BST) program supplemented with in situ training for teaching children safety skills to use when they find a gun (i.e., don't touch, leave the area, tell an adult). Eight 4- to 5-year-old children were trained and assessed in a naturalistic setting and in a generalized setting in a multiple baseline across subjects design. Results showed that 3 of the children performed the skills after receiving BST, whereas 5 of the children required supplemental in situ training. All children in the study learned to perform the skills when assessed in a naturalistic setting and when assessed in a generalization setting. Performance was maintained at 2- to 8-week follow-up assessments.
This study evaluated behavioral skills training (BST), in a multiple baseline across subjects design, for teaching firearm safety skills to 6 6- and 7-year-old children. Similar to previous research with 4- and 5-year-olds, half of the children acquired the safety skills following BST and half acquired the skills following BST plus in situ training.
Existing programs are insufficient for teaching gun-safety skills to children. Programs that use active learning strategies (modeling, rehearsal, and feedback) are more effective for teaching gun-safety skills as assessed by supervised role plays but still failed to teach the children to use the skills outside the context of the training session. More research is needed to determine the most effective way to promote the use of the skills outside the training session.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.