Do children do what they say? Responses to hypothetical and real-life social problems in children with mild intellectual disabilities and behaviour problems.
Short hypothetical stories about fights predict real aggression in kids with mild intellectual disability.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with the kids who had mild intellectual disability and behavior problems.
Each child answered six short stories about playground fights. Then they faced a real staged conflict with a peer.
Researchers watched and coded every aggressive move in both settings.
What they found
Kids who picked aggressive answers in the stories also showed more real aggression when provoked.
The match was moderate but clear. Hypothetical stories predicted actual behavior better than chance.
How this fits with other research
Schroeder et al. (2014) later tested adults with Williams syndrome. They found self-report did not match real behavior, but parent reports did. This extends the 2005 finding to older ages and shows parents can add value.
Cary et al. (2024) studied autistic youth. They found child self-report still mattered because it added unique information beyond caregiver ratings. Together these papers say: use both child and caregiver views when you can.
Tallant et al. (1989) tried teaching problem-solving skills to teens with ID. Their real-world gains show that once you spot the skill gap, you can teach better choices. The 2005 paper gives you a quick way to spot the gap.
Why it matters
You can now use short social problem stories to screen for real-life aggression risk in kids with MID. If the child picks hitting or yelling in the story, plan extra practice with calm choices and safe exits. Add caregiver input for a fuller picture.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Most research on children's social problem-solving skills is based on responses to hypothetical vignettes. Just how these responses relate to actual behaviour in real-life social situations is, however, unclear, particularly for children with mild intellectual disabilities (MID). METHOD: In the present study, the spontaneous and selected responses of 56 children with MID to hypothetical situations from the Social Problem-Solving Test for children with MID (SPT-MID) were compared to their actual behaviour in comparable staged standardized real-life conflict situations. Correlations to externalizing behaviour problems were assessed using the Teacher's Report Form (TRF). RESULTS: The results show children with MID and accompanying externalizing behaviour problems to behave more aggressively in the staged real-life conflicts and provide more spontaneous aggressive responses to the hypothetical vignettes than children with MID and no accompanying externalizing behaviour problems; they did not, however, select more aggressive responses from the hypothetical options provided. A moderate correlation was found between the aggressiveness of the spontaneous responses in the hypothetical situations and actual behaviour in the staged real-life situations. In addition, both the spontaneous aggressive responses under hypothetical circumstances and the actual aggressive behaviour under staged real-life circumstances were related to teacher-rated aggressive behaviour in the classroom. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that the hypothetical vignettes from the SPT-MID do provide information on both the actual behaviour and knowledge of social problem-solving skills of children with MID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2005 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2005.00674.x