Naturalistic assessment of children's compliance to teachers' requests and consequences for compliance.
Low-adjusted students soak up teacher attention for noncompliance and still get second helpings of commands after they obey—break the cycle by praising first-time compliance.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers watched teachers and kids in regular classrooms. They noted every time a teacher gave a request. They recorded whether the child obeyed and what the teacher did next.
The team compared well-adjusted kids with peers who had behavior problems. No one tried to change anything; they just wrote down what happened.
What they found
Well-adjusted children usually followed directions. Teachers gave them quick, quiet praise and moved on.
Low-adjusted children got a different deal. When they disobeyed, teachers gave lots of warm attention. When they finally obeyed, teachers often repeated the same command again instead of praising.
How this fits with other research
Harrington et al. (2006) later saw the same pattern in preschool. They added that short, embedded requests like "put your book here" work best.
Emmelkamp et al. (1986) proved the link is causal. When they experimentally increased compliance, problem behaviors dropped, just as the 1983 data hinted.
Wilder et al. (2020) show how to fix the trap. They paired the first prompt with a favorite item for children with autism. Compliance rose without extra nagging.
Why it matters
Your attention is fuel. If you give smiles, hugs, or extra prompts when kids say no, you are paying for refusal. Flip the script. Give clear, one-time directions. When the child complies, tag it with quick praise and walk away. Save your energy for the kids who just did what you asked.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Naturally occurring levels of teacher commands, child compliance to those commands, and positive and negative teacher feedback were studied in 19 teachers and 130 children in kindergarten through third grade. Seventy-five of the children had been identified as "making a good social adjustment" to school (high-rated) and 55 children were identified as "not making a good social adjustment" to school (low-rated). Results of intensive observation over a 4-wk period showed that: (a) individual teachers differed significantly in their overall use of commands; however, they did not differentially respond to high- versus low-rated children; (b) high-rated children were more likely to comply with commands than were low-rated children; (c) although the overall level of positive social consequences was extremely low, there was some indication that high-rated children were more likely to receive positive feedback for compliance than were low-rated children; (d) low-rated children received significantly more positive feedback than high-rated children for noncompliance; (e) teachers gave negative feedback for noncompliance at an equal level to both groups of children; and (f) although repeated teacher commands following noncompliance were equal across groups, low-rated children were exposed to significantly higher levels of repeated commands following compliance than were high-rated youngsters.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1983 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1983.16-243