This article describes the use of response contingent brief social isolation (i.e., timeout) with 770 children admitted to an inpatient child psychiatry treatment unit during a 2-year study period. A total of 2,256 timeouts were recorded during the study period. Preliminary normative frequency, duration, and reason for timeout information are reported for age and sex groups and for common diagnostic categories. Only a third (255) of the inpatients earned one or more timeouts during their hospitalization. The results suggest 2 trends for timeout in this inpatient setting. First, there was an inverse relationship between timeout frequency and subjects' age; i.e., frequency of timeouts tended to decrease as subjects' age increased. Second, there was a positive relationship between timeout duration and subjects' age; i.e., older subjects required longer timeouts. A third and tentative finding suggested that the frequency of timeout was differentially associated with primary diagnosis for some groups. Alternative treatment procedures are discussed.
Timeout is a behavior reduction procedure commonly used in inpatient and other treatment settings (e.g., Garrison, 1984; Harris, 1985; Roberts, 1982a,b, 1984a,b, 1988a,b; Thomas & Maus, 1983). While some authors have focused on other treatment aspects of timeout, such as self-inflicted timeout (e.g., Joshi, Capozzoli, & Coyle, 1 988), the prevailing empirically-supported position employs timeout as a response cost (punishment) or discipline procedure (e.g., Harris, 1985; Hobbs & Forehand, 1977; MacDonough & Forehand, 1973; Patterson, 1982). Roberts (1988a) noted that there have been over 200 published articles on the use of brief social isolation (i.e. timeout) to reduce child misbeha-
The authors acknowledge