Effect of Contracts in Decreasing Inappropriate Behavior of Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities

Abstract

Students with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) often demonstrate inappropriate behaviors in the classroom and these behaviors have shown to predict poor academic achievement, rejection from peers, and an increased chance of a student dropping out of school (Wilkinson, 2005). The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of behavior contracts to decrease the inappropriate behaviors of students with EBD in their middle school classrooms. Three male 7th and 8th grade students who have been school-identified with EBD and exhibit inappropriate behaviors in their general education classrooms were identified to participate in this research. A multiple baseline across participant design was used to implement behavior contracts for one inappropriate behavior for each participant. Using the behavior contracts, all three students demonstrated a decrease in their targeted inappropriate behavior. Behavior contracts were seen to be a very effective and an easy to use intervention for these three students. These results suggest that behavior contracts can be used with EBD students as a tool to allow their successful inclusion in the general education classroom without disrupting the learning environment.