effect of social and token economy reinforcements on academic achievement of students with intellectual disabilities

This study investigates the effect of social and token economy reinforcements on academic achievement of 9th grade boy students with intellectual disabilities in an experimental science class in Tehran Province. The method used for this study was experimental by pre-test, post- test with a control group. The boy students with intellectual disabilities from three junior high schools participated in this study. The sample consisted of thirty, 9th grade boy students with intellectual disabilities in the selected schools; the schools were chosen by the multistage cluster method. To measure the progress of students in the science class, a teacher made test and the Wechsler intelligence test for matching the groups for IQ were used. To ensure validity, the content validity criteria depended tests calculated by the Lashe method and teachers' perspective were used. The reliability coefficient was obtained by the reliability coefficient of related tests; the percent agreement method and the obtained data were analyzed using one-way variance analysis and Shefe prosecution test. The results showed that there was a significant increase in academic achievement of students with intellectual disabilities when using token economy than using social reinforcements compared with the control group. Also, when using social reinforcements, the academic achievement of students was more than the control group. Token economy and social reinforcements increased the academic achievement of students with intellectual disabilities in the science class; and also the effect of token economy reinforcements was more than social reinforcements on the subjects

factors associated with suicide ideation in Iranian soldiers

The study focuses on psychosocial variables related to suicide ideation in young soldiers. 1329 Soldiers were randomly selected from the Infantry Forces in different regions. All the soldiers were requested to complete the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation [BSSI] as well as General Health Questionnaire [GHQ-28]. Data were analyzed using correlation tests. The results revealed that psychological factors, negative family background, environmental and task-related problems, and sociodemographic problems were significantly associated with suicide ideation. Overall, suicide ideation could be prevented if soldiers with psychosocial problems were identified and the Army officials applied appropriate methods to solve these psychological problems