Predicting the persistence of severe self-injurious behavior

• Published in: Research in developmental disabilities Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 67 - 75
• Main Authors: Emerson, Eric, Kiernan, Chris, Alborz, Alison, Reeves, David, Mason, Heidi, Swarbrick, Rebecca, Mason, Linda, Hatton, Chris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Ltd 2001; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Adults; Age Differences; Aged; Behavior Therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Cohort Studies; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Head Injuries; Humans; Individual Characteristics; Intellectual deficiency; Intellectual Disability - psychology; Intellectual Disability - rehabilitation; Male; Medical sciences; Mental Retardation; Middle Aged; Persistence; Predictor Variables; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Self Injurious Behavior; Self-Injurious Behavior - psychology; Self-Injurious Behavior - rehabilitation; Treatment Outcome; Human; Self injury; Logistic regression; Symptomatology; Follow up study; Prediction; Intellectual deficiency; Evolution; Developmental disorder; Mental retardation
• ISSN: 0891-4222; 1873-3379
• DOI: 10.1016/S0891-4222(00)00062-7

Information was collected on 95 people with mental retardation who had been identified seven years previously as showing severe self-injurious behavior. At follow up 71% of participants were still showing self-injurious behavior of a severity which presented a management problem for care staff. The occurrence of specific topographies of self-injury was extremely stable among the group showing persistent self-injury. Finally, self-injury status at follow-up was predicted with 76% accuracy by a logistic regression model containing three variables: site of injury (higher persistence being shown by people exhibiting head directed self-injury); reported (greater) stability of self-injury when first identified; and (younger) age.