Assessment of Challenging Behavior Exhibited by People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Systematic Review

Juliana Reyes-Martín, David Simó-Pinatella and Josep Font-Roura
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Juliana Reyes-Martín: Facultat de Psicologia, Ciències de l’Educació i de l’Esport, Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University, 08022 Barcelona, Spain
David Simó-Pinatella: Facultat de Psicologia, Ciències de l’Educació i de l’Esport, Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University, 08022 Barcelona, Spain
Josep Font-Roura: CPT Estel, Vic, 08500 Barcelona, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 14, 1-39

Abstract: The assessment of challenging behavior exhibited by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is essential for the planning of prevention and intervention programs. This review aimed to identify and analyze the standardized instruments that exclusively focus on the assessment of challenging behavior. We identified and organized 141 articles into four categories: original instrument studies, validation studies, relational studies, and intervention studies. The results identified 24 instruments that generally show high-quality psychometric properties and other utilities beyond the observation of the presence of challenging behavior and diagnostic categorization. Age, level of adaptive behavior, disability, presence of autism spectrum disorder, and medication are some of the variables that were found to be possibly related to the occurrence of challenging behavior. Additionally, the results suggest that interventions focused on supporting positive behavior or providing training on behavior to professionals and caregivers significantly reduced the occurrence of these behaviors. Instruments that help us to understand and measure the challenging behavior exhibited by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are essential for the design of effective evaluation and intervention protocols.

Keywords: assessment; scales; challenging behavior; intellectual and developmental disabilities; systematic review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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