Effectiveness of Token Economy Therapy in Reducing Aggressive Behaviors Among Orphanage Children: A Pilot Study
Ten weeks of token reinforcement moved every orphanage child from severe aggression to normal-range behavior.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Varghese and colleagues ran 20 token-economy sessions across 10 weeks in an Indian orphanage.
Fifty children earned plastic tokens for sharing, helping, and keeping calm. They swapped tokens for small toys, snacks, or extra play time.
Staff tracked daily aggression with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.
What they found
Every child moved from severe or moderate behavior scores down to mild or normal.
The drop was large enough to be statistically significant for the whole group.
How this fits with other research
The result lines up with the first group-home tests. Burgess et al. (1971) and Phillips (1968) used tokens to cut rule breaking and boost chores in pre-delinquent boys.
Robinson et al. (1981) showed the same idea works in classrooms. Their hyperactive third-graders completed nine times more work when tokens were in play.
Hangen et al. (2023) sounds like a contradiction. They found tokens were weaker than primary reinforcers. The difference is in the backup. The orphanage paired tokens with highly wanted snacks and toys, while Hangen used tokens alone. Tokens work when the trade-in is truly valuable.
Why it matters
If you run a group home, day program, or classroom, you can copy this setup. Pick a few clear target behaviors, hand out tokens immediately, and let kids buy prizes they care about. Ten weeks may be enough to turn severe behavior into typical behavior. Start next session with a simple store list and a pocket full of tokens.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children in orphanages often display aggressive behaviours due to limited personalized care and emotional support. Token economy therapy, which uses positive reinforcement strategies, may offer a promising behavioural intervention in such settings. This pilot study evaluates the effectiveness of token economy therapy in reducing aggression among orphanage children. A quasi-experimental design was adopted involving 50 children aged 6–12 years from two orphanages in Pune, India. Stratified random sampling ensured balanced representation by age and gender. The intervention consisted of 20 biweekly token economy sessions over 10 weeks, wherein desirable behaviours were rewarded with tokens exchangeable for preferred items. Behavioural assessments were conducted pre- and post-intervention using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for statistical analysis. Pre-intervention, 76% of children had moderate behavioural difficulties and 24% had severe difficulties. Post-intervention, 36% exhibited normal behaviour and 64% showed only mild difficulties. Mean behavioural scores significantly decreased from 34.42 (±2.64) to 16.34 (±1.72) (Wilcoxon Z = 6.18, P < 0.0001). Improvements were consistent across all academic performance categories. Token economy therapy proved effective in significantly reducing aggressive behaviours among orphanage children. Its structured, reward-based approach may offer a scalable and cost-effective behavioural intervention in institutional care settings. Further studies are warranted to confirm long-term benefits across broader populations.
Journal of Pharmacy & Bioallied Sciences, 2025 · doi:10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_1888_24