Challenging behaviour and its risk factors in children and young people in a special school setting: A four wave longitudinal study.
Gemma Nicholls, Tom Bailey, Corinna F Grindle and 1 others
PMID 36564858WHAT IT FOUND
Across four time points, challenging behaviour did not show a clear trend: 58.2% met criteria at the first point, and 64% at the last.
Lower adaptive skills and autism were linked to more behaviour, while profound intellectual disability was linked to less overall behaviour.
Key findings
01Overall challenging behaviour did not show a clear upward or downward trend over the study time points.
02Higher adaptive skills were associated with less overall challenging behaviour, while autism was associated with more overall challenging behaviour.
03Stereotyped behaviour was the subtype with a significant increase over time, from 28.4% at time point one to 42.2% at time point four.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
All data came from one special school, so the findings may not apply to other schools or populations. The analysed sample was 225 students who were present at all four time points, while the initial sample at time point one was 321 students, because students left when they reached age 19. Different teachers completed the measures each year, so ratings may depend on the teacher and class context. The study did not collect medical or psychiatric comorbidities, life events, or interventions that may have influenced behaviour. It examined only a limited set of risk factors, so it cannot show cause.
Declared interests
This research was completed as part of a PhD partially funded by Thrive Education Partnership. One author was part of the senior leadership team in the school where the data were collected. The other authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat lower adaptive skills as proof that improving daily skills will reduce challenging behaviour. This was an observational study, no intervention was tested, and the authors did not account for interventions that may have happened.