The Making of a Problem Behavior: How We Contribute

1
The Making of a Problem Behavior How We
Contribute

• Chapter 2 of
• Teaching Alternative Behavior Schoolwide (TABS)
• For further information, contact
• grmayer_at_aol.com

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Factors Within the Community that Contribute to
Antisocial Behavior

• A community tends to support antisocial behavior
  when
• It contains a number of antisocial networks
• Opportunities exist for similar antisocial peers
  to interact. This often results in an
  acceleration of antisocial behaviors
• There is too little for children and youth to do
  after school and during the summer
• There is little done for children regarding
  screening aggressive acts out of the media
• There is a larger community climate that
  emphasizes punishment over searching for the
  causes of the behavior

3
Home and School Factors Contributing to
Antisocial Behavior

• Coercive Punitive Environment
• Inconsistent Application of Consequences
• Rules Unclear and Inconsistent
• Little or no Acknowledgement of Appropriate
  Behavior
• Misuse of Behavior Management Procedures
• Rejection

4
Additional Factors Contributing to Antisocial
Behavior

• Home
• Low Monitoring of Child
• Low Affection
• Personal Problems
• School
• Little Individualization in Teaching Social
  Skills
• Mismatch of Instructional Materials

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Thus, it should come as no surprise that a recent
Federal publication stated

• Studies indicate that approximately four of
  every five disruptive students can be traced to
  some dysfunction in the way schools are
  organized, staff members trained, or schools are
  run. (U.S. Department of Education, 2000).

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Teacher Impact on Students

• Ive come to the frightening conclusion that I
  am the decisive element in the classroom. Its my
  personal approach that creates the climates. Its
  my daily mood that makes the weather. As a
  teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a
  childs life miserable or joyous. (Epachin et
  al., 1994).

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• Problem behaviors, rather than being located
  within the student, are often due to a mismatch
  between the characteristics of the learner and
  those of the instructional environment or the
  broader home/school context. The emphasis moves
  from a reliance on suspensions, expulsions, and
  /or punishment to prevention on constructing
  repertoires by teaching students how to behave
  rather than how not to behave.

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Positive vs. Punitive Interventions
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Positive vs. Punitive Interventions