Could Preference Indifference be a Social Behavioral Marker for Foster Youth? A Potential Alternative use for Preference Assessments.

By definition, foster youth have unique histories that often include extreme deprivation. In this paper, we propose that this unique history may impact patterns of responding observed during behavioral preference assessments. We explore the interpretative possibility that preference assessments conducted with foster youth could reveal either proximal or distal susceptibilities to reinforcement as a social-behavioral marker of their histories. As an example of the former, foster youth may show indifference for tangible items, which may diminish the utility of preferences assessments and their related intervention outcomes. As an example of the latter, a lack of discerning preference among social consequences may increase the vulnerability of foster youth to exploitation by adults. As an exploratory first step into this line of inquiry, this paper presents a comparison between assessments conducted in clinical practice with foster youth and those published in standard behavioral outlets. We compared data sets for published (N = 25) and foster youth (N = 30) data sets with percentage selection as the dependent measure. Results indicate the number of graphs depicting a clear hierarchy was significantly lower for foster youth data sets, suggesting foster youth could be more likely to show preference indifference. We suggest future directions and considerations for using preference assessments with foster youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]