SWK 5015- u08a1- K. Murray

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1 Single-Subject Design Critique Single-Subject Design Critique Kimberly R. Murray SWK5015: Advanced Statistics, Research, and Program Evaluation. u08a1: Critiquing Single-Subject Designs Capella University

2 Single-Subject Design Critique Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of anger control training through a day treatment program when working with male adolescents diagnosed with explosive and conduct disorders (Whitfield, 1999). Specifically, the aim was to determine if the cognitive behavioral intervention strategy used would reduce school violence. The researchers expressed that social work services in school settings may be left in the past with current educational reform and funding issues. For that reason, it’s important for research to prove that social work services are needed for the success of students in the educational setting, especially for older adolescent students. The Study Sample The target population was students that were attending an adolescent day treatment program in a public school system. The sample was made up of sixteen male students who were referred to the program due to demonstrating problems with their self-control (Whitfield, 1999). The students were paired based on age, self-control abilities, parent/teacher-rated aggressive and delinquent characteristics, and general cognitive abilities (Whitfield, 1999). Dependent Variables and Operationalization Two self-report measures (anger control and anger expression), and a behavioral count or measure of acting-out behaviors were the dependent variables that were assessed weekly (Whitfield, 1999). The students completed the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory weekly, and the measured outcomes from the assessment were Anger Control and Anger Expression. Higher scores on Anger Control scale indicate more investment by the student in monitoring and preventing anger, while higher scores on the Anger Expression scale showed intense angry feelings that could be suppressed or expressed in the explosive behavior (Whitfield, 1999). If

3 Single-Subject Design Critique there were lower scores reported on Anger Expression, that would indicate better internal management of anger and less suppression or acting out of anger (Whitfield, 1999). The dependent variable of behavioral count or measure of acting-out behaviors for the students was assessed using the Staff Daily Report and the Self-Control Rating Scale completed by the day treatment program teachers. The Staff Daily Report was a behavioral count of the aggressive episodes and specific instances of rules violations, in which lower scores indicated less behavioral and aggressive problems by the students (Whitfield, 1999). The Self-Control Rating Scale provided a measure that evaluated self-control evinced by the students before intervention (in a pretest), at the end of the anger control training (in a posttest), and at a six- month follow up assessment (Whitfield, 1999). The Use and Strengths of Single-Subject Design In a single-subject design, using fewer participants increases the designs’ flexibility, but it limits the generalizability of the results ( Gliner, et al., 2000 ). The main research design in this study utilized a single-subject, multiple baseline design across subjects. “ The key to multiple- baseline single-subject studies is that the investigator intervenes at a randomly selected time and observes the effect on only one of the baselines while the other 2 baselines should be unchanged... This type of design eliminates the internal validity threat of history because one would expect that if some external event was altering behavior, it would affect all participants, settings, or behaviors, not just one,” ( Gliner, et al., 2000 , p. 1328). The strength of using a single- subject design is that this type of design is beneficial when evaluating the effectiveness of the program on the individual, or small group, rather than on a large sample group. When using this type of design, the focus can be on changing the behaviors of individuals, which is the goal of working with these students in a day treatment program.

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4 Single-Subject Design Critique Key Findings The Anger Control and Anger Expression results showed that there was evidence of patterns of improvements with the self-reported data. The hierarchical linear modeling analysis showed that the difference between treatment status had a significant impact on the trend for the Anger Control and Anger Expression measures (Whitfield, 1999). There were more weekly improvements among students participating in the treatment program than that of the control group, which was not participating. The Anger Control Training students significantly improved in self-reports regarding their use of anger control and anger expression in a positive direction compared to the control students (Whitfield, 1999). With both Anger Control and Anger Expression, the results showed that there was significant parameter variance associated with the intervention trend, suggesting that other variables may have contributed to the different client responses in addition to group status (Whitfield, 1999). The Staff Daily Reports showed some variations among individuals; however, generally there was a pattern of moderate improvement when assessing the trends of the data (Whitfield, 1999). The visual analysis of the Staff Daily Report indicated clear improvement for three experimental students, general patterns of deterioration in behavior for another three students, and ambiguous data results for the last two students in the study (Whitfield, 1999). When also looking at the Self-Control Rating Scale results, the difference between students who participated in treatment and those who did not influenced the self-control behaviors of the students, and those who participated in the treatment program showed greater improvements (Whitfield, 1999). Finding Critiques and Design Limitations The researcher points out that the external validity of this study is limited due to a restricted sample, and research using other sample groups from students in similar school social

5 Single-Subject Design Critique work settings is needed (Whitfield, 1999). The research also discussed outside variables, which could cause skewed results. These could include family stress, outside trauma, drug or alcohol use, etc. One limitation of a sing-subject design involves external validity. “ The random selection of one participant, or even a small number of participants, is unusual because the participants are usually selected because of some particular behavioral or physical problem... What eventually works for one client/participant may not work for another... Of course, some of the unsuccessful treatments may work for another person,” ( Gliner, et al., 2000, p. 1329 ). Additionally, another limitation would be that it is hard to generalize study results to other groups due to the limited sample group size. However, overall, the results of the study suggest that a focus, cognitive- behavioral approach with relationship-oriented counseling is effective in improving anger control and general self-control (Whitfield, 1999). References

6 Single-Subject Design Critique Gliner, J. A., Morgan, G. A., & Harmon, R. J. (2000). Single-subject designs . Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39 (10), 1327–1329. Whitfield, G. W. (1999). Validating school social work: An evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral approach to reduce school violence . Research on Social Work Practice, 9 (4), 399–426.

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