Assessing and Enhancing Generalization and Social Validity of Social-Skills Interventions with Children and Adolescents
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-1993
Description
Generalization and social validity are necessary aspects of any applied behavior analytic endeavor. They are especially critical to social-sldlls training research and practice. Investigators have demonstrated the effectiveness of various leaming theory-based interventions in teaching social skills to and increasing peer interactions of children with and without disabilities. However, development of a technology for reliably transferring these changes across different situations or ensuring their persistence over time has proven to be more problematic. From both a conceptual and empirical standpoint, this article reviews progress in and barriers to assessing and enhancing generality of social behavior change and its relationship to social validity. If progress is to be made, then it will be necessary to (a) distinguish between generalization and generality in developing and evaluating social-skills interventions; (b) expand the concept of social validity to give more emphasis to objective measurement of social skills, interventions, and outcomes; and (c) pursue a systematic analysis of generality-and durability-programming tactics.
Citation Information
Fox, James J.; and Mcevoy, Mary A.. 1993. Assessing and Enhancing Generalization and Social Validity of Social-Skills Interventions with Children and Adolescents. Behavior Modification. Vol.17(3). 339-366. https://doi.org/10.1177/01454455930173006 PMID: 8343102 ISSN: 0145-4455