A simple instrument was used to measure both the favorite foods of some rural Southwestern children and their intake of food relevant to cardiovascular health with a view to designing and pilot-testing a culturally appropriate health curriculum. Pilot-testing indicated several significant changes in eating behavior were achieved. (JD)

A program to decrease unnecessary visits to an elementary school health room involved teachers asking students to visit the health room only for serious problems and urging parents to support the goal of reducing health room visits. Substantial decreases in ambiguous, unidentifiable complaints and health room visits were found following program…

In this study, functional communication training alone and combined with extinction and/or punishment was evaluated for four clients with severe retardation, behavior problems, and communication deficits. Results showed that the combination of training plus punishment produced the largest and most consistent reductions in target behavior problems.…

This commentary affirms that the methodology proposed in a paper by Richard A. Winett and others (EC 601 539) may be useful in conducting social validity assessments and applying these assessment data to improve behavioral interventions. The study of accurate and valid assessment of consumer satisfaction is encouraged. (JDD)

This commentary on assessing the social validity of behavior-change programs examines which groups should be included in the assessment, whether social validity assessment should be required, and whether new methods are needed. The paper notes that social validation should be an interactive process between researcher and consumer. (JDD)

A study of a 12-year-old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder investigated the effectiveness of a token economy incentive program implemented in the home setting to increase attention to task while doing homework assignments. Results found the boy's percentage of time spent on-task increased markedly. (Author/CR)

Adolescents (N=18) referred for peer interaction difficulties participated in a program designed to improve social competence in peer interactions. Comparison with 18 socially competent adolescents found substantial differences between groups at pretest and significant improvements on different measures across different adolescents, although…

Examines the impact of an all-male rape prevention program on fraternity men. After participating in "The Men's Program," fraternity men were asked if the program impacted their attitude or behavior and what led to that change. Results point to the importance of establishing empathy with rape survivors to increase men's awareness and sensitivity…

Introduces computerized tailoring and provides a brief overview of its elements and applications as well as of the papers of this issue. The articles describe the application of behavioral change theories to this new approach, advantages of computer-tailored intervention over more general mass media approaches, their effectiveness and future…

Assessed the outcome of a therapeutic horseback riding program for adults with physical disabilities. A one-group, pre- test/post-test design was used to evaluate changes on level of physical and global self-efficacy. Behavioral indices of self-confidence were also evaluated. Physical self-efficacy and behavioral self-confidence increased from…

This article describes an intervention with an 18-year-old young woman with mild mental retardation and a seizure disorder, which focused on her repetitive echolalic verbalizations. The intervention included time delay, differential reinforcement of other behaviors, and self-monitoring. Overall, the intervention was successful in facilitating…

This study is a cluster randomized controlled trial of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP; H. J. Markman, S. M. Stanley, & S. L. Blumberg, 2001). Fifty-seven religious organizations (ROs), consisting of 217 newlywed couples, were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 intervention conditions: PREP delivered by university clinicians…

The Juvenile and Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Program (JASAP) is a curriculum-based prevention and health promotion program for youth between the ages of 13 to 18 years in Fulton County, Georgia. The program was established in 2007 to promote healthy decision-making skills that would eventually lead to informed choices and decisions…

The Youth Development Project is a research-based program for delinquency prevention. The project tested three strategies for children and youth at-risk: social skills training, cooperative student team learning, and parent school liaison. Data collection and planning began in the 1983-84 school year and intervention was started in 1984-85.…