Functions of Prosocial Behaviors in Children with Autism

自闭症儿童亲社会行为的功能

• 批准号: 7426183
• 负责人: Maureen Conroy
• 金额: $ 7.41万
• 依托单位: VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-08-01 至 2008-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7426183
• 关键词: attention; autism; behavior test; behavior therapy; behavioral /social science research tag; child behavior; clinical research; disease /disorder classification; escape reaction; functional ability; human subject; human therapy evaluation; middle childhood (6-11); motivation; patient oriented research; preschool child (1-5); psychometrics; questionnaires; reinforcer; social adjustment; social behavior; socializations; stimulus /response; visual stimulus

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) generally have pervasive social skill deficits, and their social behavior provides a pivotal link to cognitive and communicative outcomes. Researchers in applied behavior analysis have used functional analysis (FA) to identify functions of aberrant behavior and successfully linked intervention to function for children with ASD, but they have not extended FA techniques to determine functions of prosocial behavior. The proposed study thus has 3 aims: To determine (a) whether primary functions of prosocial behaviors in children with ASD can be identified using FA, (b) the extent to which primary functions systematically differ across ASD social subtypes, and (c) the effectiveness of social skill treatments linked to FA outcomes. Using a FA protocol adapted from our preliminary work, we will obtain rates of prosocial behavior for 60 participants ages 3-9 with diagnoses of ASD, 20 for each subtype of autism (active-but-odd, passive, and aloof), in each of 3 FA conditions: obtaining attention; obtaining a preferred tangible item; escaping social stimuli. Each participant will receive the conditions in multiple 5-minute videotaped sessions (one condition per session) presented in random order, and the condition with the consistently highest rate of prosocial behavior will indicate the primary function for a given participant. To determine whether function and subtype are dependent, we will use a 3 x 3 chi squared test; we will use a muiticategory logistic regression analysis to determine whether chi squared findings are maintained after controlling for IQ and communication score. To pilot the effectiveness of treatment linked to function, we will use a within-subjects reversal design with 3 participants with different hypothesized function x subtype combinations. Each will receive all 3 contingent treatments (attention, tangible, escape), and we will thus compare (a) the effectiveness of contingent treatment linked to FA outcome with non-contingent treatment and (b) rate of behavior across contingencies to determine whether function-based treatment (as determined in Aim 1) is more powerful than contingent treatment not linked to function. The outcomes of this exploratory study will guide future research efforts to determine whether function- based social skills treatments can be effectively matched to characteristics of children with ASD.

描述（由申请人提供）：患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的儿童通常普遍存在社交技能缺陷，他们的社交行为与认知和沟通结果之间存在关键联系。应用行为分析的研究人员使用功能分析（FA）来识别异常行为的功能，并成功地将干预与自闭症儿童的功能联系起来，但他们尚未扩展 FA 技术来确定亲社会行为的功能。因此，拟议的研究有 3 个目标：确定（a）是否可以使用 FA 来识别 ASD 儿童亲社会行为的主要功能，（b）不同 ASD 社会亚型的主要功能系统性差异的程度，以及（c）社交技能治疗的有效性与 FA 结果相关。使用根据我们的初步工作改编的 FA 协议，我们将获得 60 名 3-9 岁诊断为自闭症谱系障碍的参与者的亲社会行为率，每种自闭症亚型（主动但奇怪、被动和冷漠）各有 20 名参与者，在每个3 个 FA 条件之一：获得关注；获得首选的有形物品；逃避社会刺激。每个参与者将收到以随机顺序呈现的多个 5 分钟录像会话中的条件（每个会话一个条件），亲社会行为率始终最高的条件将指示给定参与者的主要功能。为了确定函数和子类型是否相关，我们将使用 3 x 3 卡方检验；我们将使用多类别逻辑回归分析来确定在控制智商和沟通得分后是否维持卡方结果。为了试验与功能相关的治疗的有效性，我们将使用受试者内逆转设计，其中 3 名参与者具有不同的假设功能 x 亚型组合。每个人都将接受所有 3 种应急处理（注意、有形、逃避），因此我们将比较 (a) 与 FA 结果相关的应急处理与非应急处理的有效性，以及 (b) 突发事件的行为率，以确定功能是否有效基于功能的治疗（如目标 1 中确定的）比与功能无关的应急治疗更有效。这项探索性研究的结果将指导未来的研究工作，以确定基于功能的社交技能治疗是否可以有效地匹配自闭症儿童的特征。