Students who frequently display disruptive behavior during elementary school are at increased risk for serious emotional and behavioral disorders* in the future. School psychologists are often consulted about which interventions are most effective for children with disruptive behavior.

This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of some of the most commonly used interventions for disruptive behavior, including:

Behavioral Interventions, such as token economies, timeout, over-correction, differential reinforcement*, response-cost procedures, group contingencies*, home-based contingencies, stimulus cueing, and self-management interventions*.

Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions*, such as anger control programs, affective imagery, self-instructional training programs, and social problem-solving interventions.

Individual Counseling with individual therapists or school personnel who have been trained in counseling techniques.

Parent Training, where the child’s parents are taught how to use strategies such as differential reinforcement, compliance training, or timeout.

1. Group contingencies*, self-management strategies*, and differential reinforcement were significantly more effective in reducing disruptive classroom behavior than cognitive-behavioral interventions.
2. There was no specific type of behavioral consequence that was more effective than another.
3. Students with emotional disturbance were more responsive to interventions than students with oppositional defiant or conduct disorder;
4. Interventions were more successful in self-contained classrooms.

The conclusion that emerges from this meta-analysis is that behavioral interventions more effectively reduce disruptive behavior than do cognitive behavioral interventions. The most effective behavioral interventions appear to be:

• Group contingencies—These are similar to token economies; however, in group contingencies, the group as a whole earns and receives the reinforcement.
• Self-management strategies—In these interventions, students learn to monitor and evaluate their own behavior and use self-reinforcement techniques.
• Differential reinforcement—In this approach, reinforcement is based on a predetermined low level or absence of disruptive behavior during a specified time period. As long as students experienced some form of consequence for their behavior, whether that consequence was positive, negative, or combined did not significantly change the outcome.