The Role of Externalizing Problems and Empathy on the Daily Report Card

The daily report card (DRC) is a commonly used behavioral intervention in which teachers rate child performance on target goals and parents provide home rewards based on the child's performance. The current study investigated associations between child externalizing problems, empathy, and specific components of the DRC: (1) types of DRC goals that are chosen, (2) teacher and parent adherence to the DRC, and (3) child performance on the DRC. These aims were examined in a sample of 71 children (ages 7-11) who were enrolled in a school-home intervention designed for children with significant inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behaviors. Teachers and parents completed separate baseline measures of inattention (IA), hyperactivity/impulsivity (H/I), conduct problems (CP), and empathy. Outcomes included type of DRC goals (i.e., academic, behavioral, and social-emotional), teacher and parent adherence to the DRC during the initial four-week intervention period, and child DRC performance during the same period. First, IA predicted more academic goals but fewer social-emotional goals, H/I predicted fewer academic goals but more behavioral goals, and CP predicted more social-emotional goals. Second, H/I predicted better parental adherence such that parents rewarded their child's DRC more frequently. Third, baseline empathy predicted better overall DRC performance; externalizing problems did not negatively impact DRC performance. Results suggest that the DRC is a robust behavioral modification tool that can be tailored to fit each child's needs and severity of externalizing problems. Empathy may serve as an important factor when designing treatment protocols to improve overall child behavior.