2025 Conference Archive

Format

Individual Presentation

Format

Poster Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Auburn University

First Presenter’s Email Address

Auburn University

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Ashley Anderson provided direct care for adolescents at the King’s Home residential facility and Bethesda Academy boarding school before pursuing her education to become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. For five years, she has provided behavior-analytic services to justice-involved youth at the Department of Youth Services in Alabama. She has completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology, master’s degree in behavior analysis, master’s in Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, and Ph.D. in Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences at Auburn University.

Second Presenter's Institution

Auburn University

Second Presenter’s Email Address

djs0088@auburn.edu

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

For nearly a decade, Dan Sheridan worked with autistic individuals, their families, and many professionals and paraprofessionals, across multiple continents, to provide behavior-analytic services. In 2021, Dan moved to Auburn, Al, to pursue a doctoral degree in Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences. During this time, Dan began providing behavior-analytic services to justice-involved adolescents and the direct-care staff who work with them to foster a rehabilitative environment focused on teaching practical and functional life-skills. In 2012, Dan Sheridan obtained his bachelor’s degree in psychology. Shortly after, he pursued a master’s degree in applied behavior analysis and spent a year working in Boston, Massachusetts. Nearly a decade later, Dan went back to pursue his PhD in Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences, and during this time he earned an additional master’s degree and post-graduate certificate.

Submitter

I am submitting this proposal as one of the presenter(s)

Location

Harborside Ballroom

Strand #1

Health: Mental & Physical Health

Strand #2

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Relevance

Heart: Our poster presents an intervention program designed by behavior analysts and implemented in a secure juvenile justice facility to increase positive staff and resident interactions and promote rehabilitation.

Head: We present how we collected data and used it to make data-based decisions about levels of support for individual students and across the facility for dorms and staff.

Brief Program Description

This poster aims to provide an overview of the intervention developed and implemented by Board Certified and Licensed Behavior Analysts to inform evidence-based treatment decisions for one secure juvenile residential facility.

Summary

Under the guise of preserving safety at both the individual and societal level, juvenile residential treatment facilities (JRTFs) may use coercive procedures to manage problem behavior exhibited by justice-involved adolescents (JIAs). These techniques can be harmful and do not meet the critical needs of JIAs. By contrast, if JRTFs provide an environment that fosters skill development and utilizes rehabilitative practices this may mitigate occurrences of problem behavior and meet the unique needs of youth. One method used to increase desirable behavior and reduce challenging behavior is the contingency management system (CMS). The CMS consists of a large-scale token economy that includes data collection for JIAs behavior, specific time periods for facilitating positive interactions between residents and staff, and a feedback mechanism to assist residents with self-management of problem behavior and skill acquisition. Importantly, the data collected through the token economy may offer clinicians the ability to identify periods (e.g. days of the week, time of day) when (a) problem behavior is most likely to occur, and (b) unstructured time can be utilized for skill-building activities. Likewise, clinicians can use the data to objectively identify residents, staff, and dorms who need more support.

Evidence

Luna, O., Rapp, J. T., & Brogan, K. M. (2022). Improving juvenile justice settings by decreasing coercion: One lab’s perspectives from behind the fence. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 45, 295–325. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-022-00325-2

Luna, O. & Rapp, J. T. (2022). Increasing praise delivery within dorms of a juvenile justice facility. Behavior Modification, 46(3), 651- 685. https://10.1177/0145445520982976

Edgemon, A. K., & Rapp, J. T. (2024). Conditional Probability of Challenging Behavior in a Juvenile Justice Facility: Analysis by Days of Week and Time of Day. Residential

Cavanagh, C. (2022). Healthy adolescent development and the juvenile justice system: Challenges and solutions. Child Development Perspectives, 16(3), 141-147. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12461

Jolivette, K., & Nelson, C. M. (2010). Adapting positive behavioral interventions and supports for secure juvenile justice settings: Improving facility-wide behavior. Behavioral Disorders, 36, 28-42. https://doi.org/10.1177/019874291003600104

Learning Objective 1

Identify the components of an evidence-based behavior management system

Learning Objective 2

Learn how data from a behavior tracking system can be utilized for decision making

Learning Objective 3

Identify how to use behavior tracking to promote skill aquisition

Keyword Descriptors

positive behavior management, skill acquisition, data-based decisions

Presentation Year

2025

Start Date

3-2-2025 4:45 PM

End Date

3-2-2025 6:00 PM

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Mar 2nd, 4:45 PM Mar 2nd, 6:00 PM

Behavior Management in Juvenile Justice Facilities: Token Economy, Feedback, & Data-based Decision Making

Harborside Ballroom

This poster aims to provide an overview of the intervention developed and implemented by Board Certified and Licensed Behavior Analysts to inform evidence-based treatment decisions for one secure juvenile residential facility.