Documentation of change in problem behaviors among anxious and hostile-aggressive children enrolled in a therapeutic preschool program.

A relatively simple, straightforward procedure is utilized to identify and document changes in problem behaviors among children enrolled in a therapeutic preschool program. Results of two outcome measures indicated a significant overall reduction in problem behaviors for the total group. When subgroups of anxious and hostile/aggressive children were considered, however, there was a significantly greater probability that anxious children would benefit more from the program than hostile/aggressive children. The need to consider subgroups of patients when documented treatment effectiveness is emphasized, and the advantage of building documentation techniques into the record-keeping system is discussed.