Self-Monitoring Behavioral Interventions with Youth: A Meta-Analysis and Study Quality Assessment

Self-monitoring is an intervention that has been used for decades to improve academic fluency in reading, mathematics, spelling, and promote strategies for solving problems, and increasing attention to task and decreasing off-task related behaviors There are three types of self-monitoring: (1) self-monitoring attention, (2) self-monitoring accuracy on an academic task, and (3) self-monitoring the quantity of an academic task produced. There have been a few reviews of self-monitoring on the variables listed previously, but only one examined study quality and no meta-analysis of self-monitoring behavior (versus academic tasks) has been undertaken. The purpose of this review was to conduct a meta-analysis of 20 studies that focused on self-monitoring behavior and apply the Council for Exceptional Children’s eight quality indicators and 22 items collectively to determine the quality of the studies. Effect sizes were calculated using three formulas: standard mean difference, improvement rate difference, and Tau-U. Obtained effect sizes for all three formulas demonstrated that self-monitoring behavior is an evidence-based practice. Implications for practice are presented.