Self-management research and treatment generality

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Rusch, Frank R.

Affiliations: Department of Educational and School Psychology and Special Education, The Pennsylvania State University, 212 CEDAR Building, University Park, PA 16802-3109, USA E-mail: Frr3@psu.edu

Abstract: This paper addresses the external validity criteria recommended by Horner and colleagues [11] for meeting treatment generality associated with identifying “evidence-based practices”. Additionally, the paper reports on the results of applying the emergent criteria for assessing the methodological features associated with conducting single-participant research to 10 studies from the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA). Selected articles focused upon self-management strategies utilized by employees with intellectual disabilities. Based upon a review of studies published in JABA, self-management strategies did not meet minimal treatment generality criteria. Results suggest that the absence of efforts to collect procedural fidelity limits treatment generality. Therefore, additional research is warranted before these self-management-related strategies can be considered as being supported by evidence.

Keywords: Treatment generality, self management research, evidence-based practices

DOI: 10.3233/JVR-2011-0547

Journal: Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 191-196, 2011