THE EFFECTS OF SELF-MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES ON THE WEAK RULE GOVERNED BEHAVIOR OF PARENTS OF HANDICAPPED PRESCHOOLERS (SELF-RECORDING, GENERALIZATION, SELF-PRAISE, COMPLIANCE

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of self-management strategies on the weak rule governed behavior of parents of handicapped preschoolers. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used in a functional analysis of the impact of written rule and self-praise statements on compliance with child-specific home education regimen. Baseline condition consisted of self-reporting on whether parents had or had not worked with their child. Baseline trends were compared to trends for intervention phases where parents wrote weak rule statements and praised themselves for following the written rules. Data were collected daily for two consecutive months.;A visual analysis of the experimental data indicated that substantial changes took place between baseline and intervention phases for one parent and these changes were maintained during a return to baseline. A second parent had a very low compliance rate during baseline which did not change when she began writing rule statements and self-praise statements, nor was there a change in behavior when she began charting her data at home. The third parent had a high baseline rate of compliance that increased only slightly during the intervention phase.;A functional relationship between phases was not established in this study since changes which occurred in the first tier were not replicated across the other parents. High intrasubject variability and insensitive units of analysis combined with a lack of control over timing and frequency of rule stating might account for the failure to replicate. It might also be that rule stating as a self-management strategy is not a robust variable and therefore will only be useful for individuals who already demonstrate a certain ability to self-manage. It was concluded that rule stating by itself will not be effective for parents who demonstrate little control over weak rule governed behavior. The significance of these results was discussed and suggestions were made for future research.