Tolerance Training with Adolescents in a Residential Juvenile Facility

Abstract

For individuals receiving treatment in residential juvenile facilities, the inability to tolerate typical but unpleasant stimulus events may manifest in aggressive behavior toward staff or other residents. Such behaviors can lead to loss of privileges, interfere with other treatments, and contribute to negative staff-student relationships. As a procedure, tolerance training (TT) involves systematically increasing the duration of exposure to an undesired stimulus event or situation. The current study evaluated the effects of a procedure to increase tolerance of aversive situations for four adolescents who were receiving treatment for sexual offenses in a residential detention facility. Results from single-subject experimental designs indicate that TT increased all four adolescents’ ability to tolerate a non-preferred stimulus event. We briefly discuss the clinical implications of the use of behavior-analytic procedures to improve skill sets for adolescents in residential treatment facilities.

From Helpless to Hero: Promoting Values-Based Behavior and Positive Family Interaction in the Midst of COVID-19

“…When ordered to stay at home, children must do so, even if the home environment is cramped and avoiding others is impossible. To address these situations, behavior analysts should teach tolerance to nonpreferred activities and situations using graduated exposure and reinforcement (e.g., Cook, Rapp, & Schulze, 2015;O'Rourke, Richling, Brogan, McDougale, & Rapp, 2019). Increasing rates of, lengthening durations of, or shortening delays to reinforcement improve the efficiency and effectiveness of graduated exposure to nonpreferred activities and situations.…”

Improving Juvenile Justice Settings by Decreasing Coercion: One Lab’s Perspectives from Behind the Fence

“…Neil ( 2011 ) suggested compliant (or cooperative) behavior could be either “active” or “passive.” In particular, Neil argued active compliance requires an individual to emit a specific response following an instructor’s request, whereas passive compliance does not. To this end, O’Rourke et al ( 2021 ) adapted an intervention originally designed by Ghaemmaghami et al ( 2016 ) to increase students’ passive compliance 5 or “tolerance skills” to aversive stimulus events. Facility staff members reported students engaged in disruptive behaviors (e.g., negotiating, property destruction, aggression) when they were either denied access to preferred activities or instructed to “deal with” nonpreferred situations (e.g., periods of low staff attention).…”

“…It is important to note that O’Rourke et al ( 2021 ) modified procedures previously applied to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Cook et al, 2015 ; Rapp et al, 2005 , 2017 ; Ricciardi et al, 2006 ; Schumacher & Rapp, 2011 ). As the cornerstone of tolerance training, O’Rourke et al taught students to request what they wanted when staff members presented a nonpreferred scenario and thereafter to tolerate situations in which their requests were denied (see Ghaemmaghami et al, 2016 ).…”

Interventions addressing incarcerated youth behavior: A review of literature.

“…Therefore, this review focuses on the 10 identified intervention research studies aimed at improving the behavior of youth in JCF (see Table 1). Specific to the current systematic review, results of the electronic search resulted in identifying two relevant studies (i.e., Brogan et al, 2017; Edgemon et al, 2020), while the hand search led to the inclusion of another eight studies (i.e., Brogan et al, 2020; Chinnappan et al, 2020; Hamrick et al, 2020; Knight et al, 2019; Lively et al, 2019; McDougale et al, 2019 (two studies in one article); O’Rourke et al, 2020). Overall, included studies came from a small number of research journals, including Behavior Modification ( n = 7), Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis ( n = 1), Criminal Justice and Behavior ( n = 1), and The Journal of Correctional Education ( n = 1)…”