Persistence of challenging behaviours in adults with intellectual disability over a period of 11 years.
Severe challenging behaviors in adults with ID often last over a decade regardless of adaptive skills, so plan for sustained intervention.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Richardson et al. (2008) tracked 11 years of challenging behavior in adults with intellectual disability. They looked at whether skills like talking, dressing, or social play predicted which behaviors would stick around.
All adults lived in the same residential center. Staff kept records on aggression, self-injury, and property destruction.
What they found
Most serious behaviors stayed the same or got worse. Adaptive skills at the start did not forecast who would still have problems later.
In short, the behavior persisted no matter the person’s skill level.
How this fits with other research
Reid et al. (2005) saw a small drop in behaviors over 12 years in kids with ID or autism. They found early severe behavior plus poor language predicted later trouble. Richardson et al. (2008) did not find skill predictors, but they started with adults, not kids. The gap may be age or setting, not a true clash.
McCarron et al. (2022) proved you can keep adults with ID in an 11-year study. Their 87% retention shows long tracking is doable, backing the value of V’s long view.
Poppes et al. (2016) found sleep and hearing pain linked to more behavior in profound ID. V’s work widens the lens: when pain is ruled out, environment still matters for persistence.
Why it matters
For BCBAs, this means do not wait for the person to “outgrow” severe behavior. Plan for long-term supports, teach coping and communication skills early, and keep scanning the environment for triggers. If baseline IQ or daily-living scores look good, still treat the behavior as a lifelong risk.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Challenging behaviours in people with an intellectual disability (ID) often develop early and tend to persist throughout life. This study presents data on the chronicity of challenging behaviours in adults with ID over a period of 11 years, and explores the characteristics of people with persistent serious behaviour problems. METHOD: Support staff provided data on 58 adults living in a long-term residential facility using an interview survey schedule assessing challenging behaviours in 1992 and 2003. RESULTS: Participants presenting with serious physical attacks, self-injury and frequent stereotypy were the most likely to persist in these behaviours over time. These behaviours were characterised by high persistence percentages and associations over time. However, the earlier presence of serious challenging behaviours did not significantly affect the likelihood of serious challenging behaviours in 2003. Individuals with persisting behaviour problems differed from those who did not present serious behaviour problems on the basis of their younger age, increased mobility, and decreased sociability and daily living skills in 1992. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of persistence for challenging behaviours are affected by the statistics chosen to represent stability. The apparent persistence of serious challenging behaviours highlights the need to identify the factors related to maintenance of these behaviours over time. The participant characteristics and adaptive behaviours identified in the present study were not consistently related to the persistence of challenging behaviours. Therefore, other factors, including environmental characteristics, are likely to be related to challenging behaviour persistence.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2008 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01046.x