Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2004

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Lindsey Cohen.

Abstract

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a chronic, terminal illness that requires intensive, time-consuming, and sometimes painful treatment for optimal health and longevity. Given the complex and aversive nature of treatment, children with CF frequently develop avoidance behaviors resulting in noncompliance to parents' treatment requests. The purpose of this study was to use a single-subject reversal design to compare children's compliance with parents' typical strategies to children's compliance when a time out based discipline strategy is in effect. Participants were two children who displayed noncompliant behavior to their parent's treatment requests. Outcome measures included parent and child behaviors as assessed by an observational coding scheme of videotaped treatment observations, and parent report of their child's treatment-related behavior problems. Preliminary support was found for the hypothesized increase in compliant child behavior during the intervention conditions for one participant. Additionally, parents demonstrated moderate changes in their behaviors during the intervention condition. Parents also reported fewer treatment-related behavior problems and desired less professional help for these problems upon completion of the study. Finally, parents reported preferring the time out based discipline strategy over their typical child management strategy.

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