Token Economy Plus Self - Monitoring to Reduce Disruptive Classroom Behaviors

The current study examined the effectiveness of a combined token economy and self-monitoring package with a youth displaying a major mental illness and severe aggressive and persistent disruptive behaviors. The student received points for lower rates of aggressive/disruptive behavior and ‘bonus’ points for accurately self-monitoring and recording his own behaviors. The results indicate that the addition of the self-monitoring component decreased the number of targeted behaviors beyond the substantial reduction of the token economy alone. In the reversal, there was a slight rise in the emission of problem behaviors, yet the frequency was still significantly below baseline. Implications for clinical applications and future research are discussed.