Behavioral Interventions for Inappropriate Sexual Behavior in Individuals With Developmental Disabilities and Acquired Brain Injury: A Review.
No single ABA tactic is labeled evidence-based for sexual behavior — always assess function first and blend proven pieces.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team hunted for every single-case paper that used ABA to curb sexual behavior in people with developmental disabilities or brain injury.
They found 23 studies and checked if any tactic met the Horner rules for an evidence-based treatment.
What they found
All the tricks worked at least once, yet no one tactic crossed the high bar to stand alone.
Bottom line: you must run a functional assessment and then borrow tools from the strongest papers.
How this fits with other research
Anonymous (2018) is the Spanish twin of this review — same year, same 23 studies, same verdict.
Erturk et al. (2018) looked at self-injury instead of sex behavior and saw 78 % of kids improve — same design, different target.
Gaylord-Ross et al. (1995) shows the idea in action: one man with ID and sexual aggression got a tailor-made plan after leaving the institution.
Why it matters
You now know not to grab a canned protocol. Treat every sexual behavior case like a puzzle: assess first, then stitch together the best-supported tactics. Start Monday by listing the triggers you see and picking one intervention that worked in a matching study.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Inappropriate sexual behavior (ISB) is a common, but understudied, issue for individuals diagnosed with developmental disabilities (DD), intellectual disability (ID), and/or acquired brain injuries (ABI). We conducted a systematic review to identify, analyze, and synthesize published behavior-analytic approaches to intervention for ISB in DD, ID, or ABI populations. Twenty-three studies employing single-subject research methodology were identified and evaluated using quality indicators described by Horner et al. (2005) . Results of our analysis suggest insufficient evidence exists to consider any specific response-suppression technique an overarching treatment for decreasing ISB using the Horner et al. criteria. However, broadly speaking, behavior analytic approaches have been highly effective. Practitioners should consider function-based intervention and draw from studies identified as having strong supporting evidence.
American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2018 · doi:10.1352/1944-7558-123.3.254