Goal Setting with Latinx Families of Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Case Studies

Behavioral community psychology focuses on studying issues that matter to communities, unpacking contextual factors that impact people’s behaviors, and identifying strategies to address such issues. Goal setting is one such strategy often used by behavioral psychologists. Grounded in the values of behavioral community psychology and a behavior analysis paradigm, this study illustrated two case studies of Latinx parents of children with disabilities where goal-setting strategies were implemented to promote behavior change. The first case study focused on the promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviors and routines among Latinx families of children with disabilities in the United States. The second case study examined goal setting related to youth development by parents of adolescents with disabilities in Colombia. In both cases, participants received training on goal setting and had opportunities to discuss progress toward achieving their goals, share action steps taken, and discuss the contextual challenges or barriers that they experienced. The results indicate that behavioral goal-setting procedures can be effective in helping parents attain their goals and brainstorm strategies for addressing behavioral and contextual challenges. Implications for future research advancing behavioral community psychology are discussed.