Acceptability of rewards among high school teachers, parents, students, and administrators: Ecological implications for consultation at the high school level

Although rewards play a critical role in virtually all intervention plans g enerated by behavioral consultants, we have virtually no knowledge of which specific rewards and reward categories are acceptable to the various const ituents of consultation services. A participant-generated survey was design ed and administered to assess the acceptability of 90 different rewards fro m the perspective of persons occupying different positions in the ecosystem s of high school students (i.e., high school teachers, parents, administrat ors, and students themselves). Findings of this exploratory study revealed that none of the seven reward categories that were studied were viewed as h ighly acceptable across all surveyed groups. With the possible exception of academic activities, which had reasonably strong support among all the par ticipant groups, important differences were found across the reward categor ies when comparing the ratings of adults versus students. An examination of the individual survey items revealed only a small handful of rewards that received at least moderate support among all the constituent groups. Diffic ulties facing behavioral consultants in high school settings are discussed, along with the need for more research addressing persuasion and interperso nal influence as potential mechanisms for enhancing reward acceptability.