Restructuring an Existing Token Economy in a Psychiatric Facility for Children

ABSTRACT

Restructuring an existing token economy (TE) in a psychiatric facility for children led to increased point-earning and decreased daily trips to seclusion. Following an informal component analysis, restructuring occurred through operationalization of target behaviors and reduction of the time between receipt of token reinforcers (points) and the opportunity to exchange tokens for back-up reinforcers (privileges). Results suggest that changes with regard to the basic components of an existing TE may influence its effectiveness.

KEYWORDS:

• Token economy
• program evaluation
• components of token economies