Students' Acceptability Ratings of Interventions for Classroom Misbehaviors: a Study of Well-Behaving and Misbehaving Youth

Abstract

Fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade students ( N = 151) completed the Children's Intervention Rating Profile (CIRP) in response to four teacher-initiated intervention methods (home-based praise, home-based reprimand, public praise, and public reprimand) to correct classroom behavior problems. In addition, each student's teacher rated a student's general behavior. When examining the intervention preferences of students at each grade level, several trends in the acceptability of intervention methods were evident. Specifically, (1) fifth graders preferred positively oriented interventions more than negatively oriented interventions, (2) seventh and ninth graders preferred home-based interventions more than school-based interventions, and (3) only ninth graders indicated a sensitivity to selecting intervention methods based upon the problematic student's sex and the teachers' rating of the students' overall behaviors. The results are discussed within the context of previous treatment acceptabilty research and highlight the importance for acceptability research to include more background variables concerning both the raters and the target child.