Mediators' emotional responses to self-injurious behavior: an experimental study

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Special Education

Background:

• Challenging behaviors, particularly self-injury, are frequently encountered in educational settings for children with developmental disabilities.
• Understanding mediators' emotional responses to these behaviors is crucial for effective intervention and support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether mediators perceive challenging behaviors, specifically self-injury, as aversive.
• To examine how the function of self-injury (e.g., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement) influences mediators' emotional responses.

Main Methods:

• A controlled study involving 60 mediators from schools for children with mental retardation.
• Participants watched videos depicting different scenarios: no self-injury, self-injury maintained by positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or unrelated to social events.
• Mediators self-reported their emotional responses after viewing each video.

Main Results:

• Mediators reported significantly fewer negative emotional responses when viewing the no self-injury video compared to videos depicting self-injury.
• The function of self-injury impacted mediators' emotions, with self-injury maintained by negative reinforcement eliciting the most negative emotions.
• These findings support the contention that mediators find challenging behaviors aversive.

Conclusions:

• Mediators' emotional responses are influenced by the function of challenging behaviors.
• Self-injury maintained by negative reinforcement appears particularly aversive to mediators.
• Implications for training and support systems for mediators working with children exhibiting challenging behaviors are discussed.