Adults with autism using self‐management to decrease problem behavior: A review of the literature

McHugh et al. (2023) hunted for every paper where adults with autism or intellectual disability used self-management to curb problem behavior. They screened hundreds of studies and kept only the ones that tested the tactic on adults. The final pool was small, so the team graded each study for quality too.

Self-management packages did cut problem behavior in every adult study they found. The catch: most studies were weak on design. Many lacked true baselines or follow-up checks, so the positive trend comes with a caution flag.

Older meta-analyses already saw the same benefit in kids. Campbell (2003) and Heyvaert et al. (2014) both showed behavioral interventions work best when paired with a functional analysis, and their wide nets caught the same self-management tactics McHugh later isolated for adults.

Ma (2009) ranked self-control training among the top strategies for autistic learners, using a metric called PEM. McHugh’s 2023 focus on adults extends that finding up the age ladder, filling a gap the child-heavy reviews left open.

Lorenc et al. (2018) reviewed support services for verbally fluent adults with ASD and found little mental-health payoff. McHugh flips the script: when adults actively track and manage their own behavior, the payoff is measurable behavior reduction, not just feel-good support.

If you serve adults with autism or ID, you now have evidence that teaching self-monitoring, self-reinforcement, or self-cueing is worth your time. Start small: have the client tally each instance of the target behavior on a wrist counter, then reward themselves for meeting a daily goal. Pair the plan with a brief functional analysis so the self-management step hits the right function, just as the older meta-analyses recommend.