Learn More About New Research in Positive Behavior Support
by
Shane T. Spiker, Jennifer Lenderman, and Holly Downs 
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Positive Behavior Support (PBS) can help parents, clinicians, and educators provide more focused treatments for children. Learn more about new research in this area.
In our article series, we have mentioned a few times that Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is a branch of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).
In these author’s opinions, ABA providers are focusing more on using treatments based on the science of PBS.
These treatments are more focused on assent, teaching skills, and using a person-centered approach with holistic supports.
PBS as a science is growing in popularity due to these practices.
However, families receiving PBS services may be curious about where their provider treatment recommendations are coming from.
How can a parent plan treatment, and agree that this is the best decision for their child?
What are the risks and benefits, and why is this treatment best for them specifically?
Clinicians should fully explain the treatment from research to help the parent make an informed decision. This is especially important when planning treatments to support your child.
Whether a parent or clinician, research on PBS and positive interventions can be difficult to read, especially if you are looking for answers to questions or support related to your concerns.
In addition, the majority of clinical research being published in journals requires a journal subscription or payment to access.
We think it is important for families to know about the science of PBS, so we’ve taken some time to round up and discuss some of the most recent research from the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions (JPBI).
We hope that reviewing these article summaries will give parents information on the science of PBS and some cool talking points with their providers when planning treatment strategies.
Your ABA (or PBS) provider should have access to these articles, and if not, you can always request it through the article authors.
Beneficial PBS Articles
Published in 2023, this article aimed to see whether an intervention called the Good Behavior Game (GBG) would help improve school engagement. They found that it did!
This treatment, studied in classrooms, involves giving points for “problematic behaviors” and rewarding teams with the fewest points.
The researchers found the game was doable by teachers and that students enjoyed it.
They also found a significant impact on more student engagement in identified school-related tasks.
Effects of Middle School Teachers’ Praise-to-Reprimand Ratios on Students’ Classroom Behavior: [HD2]
Sometimes, studies will have different results than others, and this article is a prime example of that.
The authors have focused on 28 middle school classrooms to implement their selected treatment, which was increasing the ratio of praise-based statements versus reprimands made by teachers.
They found that specific to middle school classrooms, more positive statements and fewer reprimands led to higher amounts of both individual and group on-task behaviors.
The authors make a point to mention that there were prior studies like this for elementary school classes.
However, those studies didn’t show as much of a change.
Special Topics
In some instances, journals may decide to have a “Special Issue” where they focus on a specific topic.
For 2024, JPBI chose to do a special issue called “Focus on Families.” All of the published articles focused primarily on PBS-related treatments with the aim of helping families in their home contexts.
The opening sentence from the journal editors, Rispoli and Machalicek, says “the purpose of this Special Series is to disseminate research on the application of PBS with families and in home contexts.”
So, let’s look at what these articles had to say.
Here is an excellent example of a discussion article.
Rather than conduct an experiment, the authors opted to share some guidance and insight on the family-school relationship. So, what did they find?
They found that in most cases, there were great examples of communication with caregivers and with the amount of resources they had available in the PBIS models.
However, they found that there were some struggles with shared decision-making.
This provides some great insight into how we can better improve these relationships to ensure our loved ones receive the best possible care at school.
In some cases, resources might not be readily available for caregivers, so services might not be accessible.
With recent advancements in telehealth technologies, accessibility has become a bit easier.
In this article, the researchers used the RUBI-T training curriculum via telehealth to help give parents skills to address behavioral concerns.
Not only did they find that this modality was feasible, but parents also reported that they enjoyed the training, AND the community members involved recommended the training modality.
While we need more research on whether this is a widespread experience, this has some wonderful promise!
Remote Delivery of Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Families[HD5] :
Here is another excellent example of how telehealth services can be effective. In this example, they use the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (sometimes referred to as the Prevent Teach Manage or PTM model).
In this case, they specifically used a manualized version of the program called Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Families (PTR-F) in a remote format, formally called the PTR-F: R.
Lots of letters here!
They found that across three families, the modality AND the program were effective in teaching necessary behavior support skills to help their families at home.
Sometimes, researchers will look at ALL the existing research about a subject.
These studies are great because we can see the same things working with different populations and in various settings. Here, Gerow et al. (2024) focus on concerns related to challenging behavior AND socio-emotional skills while working in home-based service settings.
They reviewed 57 studies to review various interventions and some of the challenges in these settings.
What they found is that most often, behavior analysts will use interventions related to different reward schedules (e.g., differential reinforcement), communication teaching, and preventative treatments.
They found that most caregivers can implement interventions that not only improve challenging behavior but also improve overall social-emotional skills in the home.
Our overall interpretation:
While this is not the extent of current research in PBS, there are some promising results in these new research lines.
We are finding that what we know about PBS has moved into the future with the use of telehealth practices that can be both effective and supportive to caregivers.
Research shows that even though something works for one type of person or setting, it might not work for everyone.
We also know that we can collaborate with schools and improve those relationships in powerful ways through communication, though we can do a better job of making decisions together.
We hope this gives parents some idea of where the treatments providers use come from and helps them plan collaboratively with providers.
Any parent can always request the research on the recommended treatment to help them make an informed decision.
Additional Positive Behavior Support Help
- A Complete Guide on Positive Behavior Support for Children With Special Needs
- Empowering Independence: Positive Behavior Supports in Developing Essential Life Skills
- Is a Behavior Support Plan Right for Your Child?
- Family Chat: Improving Lives with Positive Behavior Support (PBS)
- Bookshelf Essential: Parenting with Positive Behavior Support
- Positive Behavior Support: How to Collaborate
This post originally appeared on our January/February 2025 Magazine
