While awareness of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) appears to be increasing among school counselors, social workers, nurses, and others who work with youth, it remains one of the most difficult behaviors to encounter, with few professionals feeling well equipped to handle these situations. This introductory article aims to define NSSI, describe…

The high-school problem is nothing new. In one of his early writings, James S. Coleman, the brilliant sociologist who later wrote the famous report on the equality of opportunity for education (the "Coleman Report") and the first study of public and private schools, identified the essential high-school problem: "our adolescents today are cut off,…

This article describes an experiment designed to determine if a selected reinforcement style of individual counseling could influence adolescents to engage in a greater variety of information-seeking behavior than subjects not receiving such counseling. The findings indicated that the effectiveness of this technique varied with different levels of…

A learning task was used to examine the differences in responsiveness to symbolic and tangible incentives with 24 predelinquent and 25 nondelinquent 15-year-old boys. (Author/SBH)

Results clearly demonstrated that the children in this investigation made significantly more and faster responses when the reinforcer presentation was varied as opposed to constant. (Author/DB)

A group of seventh graders was challenged to decide between achievement and social approval while playing a two-choice probability game. Girls sacrificed approval for achievement more often than boys and did not reduce their efforts to achieve even when there was no opportunity for approval. (KH)

Discusses problems that often occur in the implementation and maintenance of incentive programs in residential institutions for adolescents. Suggests recommendations for overcoming these problems. (MS)

Students with an internal locus of control functioned well under a variety of conditions while students needing extrinsic reinforcement functioned well only when feedback was provided by the experimenter. (MM)

Thirty-nine trainable mentally retarded adolescents were presented with a list of 32 reward options, consisting of primary (food) and secondary (cash equivalent) rewards that were immediately available or delayed one day at a ratio of 1:2. (Author)

A comprehensive evidence-based treatment for substance abuse and other associated problems (Family Behavior Therapy) is described, including its application to both adolescents and adults across a wide range of clinical contexts (i.e., criminal justice, child welfare). Relevant to practitioners and applied clinical researchers, topic areas include…

The study compared the efficacy of proclamation, contracting, and contingent teacher approval in modifying the classroom behavior of 5 Negro adolescents. Proclamation consisted of a written statement of reward and punishment contingencies (points gained or lost) under which the class was operating, whereas the contracting phase permitted students…

Three experiments were performed to study the relationship between reinforcer quality and behavioral momentum by varying reinforcer quality in two applied experiments and a basic laboratory experiment with rats. A study of two adolescent boys with mental retardation showed that compliance increasing effects could be improved by reinforcing…

Three possibilities through which children find enjoyment in sport are explored: (1) Sport may be considered as play by children; (2) sport may be seen as success-motivating; and (3) children may find sport enjoyable because the activity itself is absorbing. (JN)