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Abstract
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The initial outcomes and current directions of a research and treatment program focusing upon Structured Learning Therapy (SLT) are the concerns of this paper. SLT is a psychoeducational approach used successfully in the past with psychiatric and other clients and is now designed to teach prosocial behaviors to aggressive adolescents. Evaluations of such training efforts to date have been largely positive. However, still more favorable skill development outcomes should follow from differential implementation of SLT in which trainee-trainer-treatment matches are prescriptively arrived at and in which major attention is devoted to transfer of training techniques designed to maximize real-life utilization of training gains. The present article describes SLT and its usage with aggressive adolescents, and details guidelines by which prescriptiveness and transfer enhancement may be implemented.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The intent of this article by Goldstein et al. was to describe Structured Learning Therapy and its application among aggressive adolescents. The article also detailed the guidelines for successful implementation of this therapy.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors employed a non-experimental design by reviewing the literature on behavior deficiency and Structured Learning Therapy.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The behavior deficiency model, a model which identified behavioral problems of children as deficiencies in essential skills, differed from correction models (incarceration or probation), medical models (psychodynamic casework) and group dynamics models (guided group interaction; positive peer culture). Unlike these models, Structured Learning Therapy (SLT) provided a strategy for enhancing essential skills by teaching negotiation, self-control, relaxation, responding to anger and other alternatives to aggressive behaviors. To teach these alternatives to aggression, SLT included modeling, role playing, social reinforcement, and transfer training. The authors identified two designs for maximizing the success of these SLT strategies. The first was a procedural approach for increasing the transfer of skills from the therapeutic setting to real-life settings. This transfer could occur through five general procedures: 1) Providing trainees with the general mediating principles that governed successful performance of tasks. Examples of this included a variety of methods for clarifying the therapy-relevant role expectations; the application of communication skills which reduced ambiguity; the instruction of coping and problem-solving strategies; and by supplying the patient with written materials of the proposed treatment. 2) Including activities which maximized the availability of the desired response. Strategies for achieving this availability included modeling via audio tape or pictures, role-playing and by observing others in role-playing. 3) Creating as many identical elements between the training of skills and the environment of their desired use. Strategies for achieving this included moving the therapy out of the office setting, enhancing the setting of the office, or including other individuals in the office setting such as family members. 4) Employing a variety of relevant training stimuli by developing the behaviors in different situations and in the presence of different of individuals. 5) Providing rewards for the desired response that would also be present in real-life settings. The second design for maximizing the success of SLT was prescriptive implementation; although the five procedures listed above could enhance the transfer of training, the interaction effects of trainee, trainer and treatment dimensions should be prescribed differently, argued the authors, depending on the needs of the adolescent. In other words, training for optimal skill development should be specially tailored, within the five general procedures, for each individual.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors concluded that greater attention should be paid, not only to the transfer of training to real life situations, but also to the unique needs of each individual in acquiring and transferring skills.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Training Program
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Aggression
KW - Prosocial Behavior
KW - Prosocial Skills
KW - Social Skills Training
KW - Aggression Treatment
KW - Juvenile Treatment
KW - Treatment Program
KW - Behavior Modification |