Factors affecting the risk of behaviour problems in children with severe intellectual disability

Abstract

In order to examine the importance of a range of potential risk factors for behaviour problems in children with severe intellectual disability, a sample was identified by the administration of a screening version of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales (VABS) to the parents of children aged 4-11 years attending six special needs schools in three adjacent inner London boroughs. Parents whose children had a VABS standard score of < or = 50 were interviewed using the Disability Assessment Schedule and both parents and teachers completed the Aberrant Behaviour Checklist. Most behaviour problems were more common in ambulant children, but problems less dependent on the ability to walk, such as sleeping difficulties, screaming and self-injury, were equally common in ambulant and non-ambulant children. Among ambulant children, there were few significant associations between the severity of the child's behaviour problems and the age or sex of the child, the presence or absence of epilepsy, and various indices of socio-economic disadvantage. Sleeping difficulties, overactivity, self-injury, destructive behaviour and autistic features, such as social withdrawal and stereotypies, were strongly associated with skills deficits, but aggression, temper tantrums and general disruptive behaviour were not. Limitations in daily living skills were better predictors of behaviour problems than were poor communication skills.

Socioeconomic deprivation is an independent risk factor for behavioral problems in children with epilepsy

“…Our finding that 59% children attending a specialist epilepsy clinic had CBCL T t -scores N 63 is supportive of our hypothesis that the prevalence of behavioral problems is much higher than in the general childhood population, which has been reported as 7-9% [30]. Our results, on a clinic-based sample and thus not necessarily representative of the broader population of children with epilepsy, are comparable with the somewhat lower rate of behavioral problems reported in populationbased studies, using different assessment methods.…”

A comparison of individual qualities of resiliency in adolescents with mild intellectual disability and typically developing adolescents

“…In this research, there were no gender differences in emotional reactivity in adolescents with ID, which corresponds to the findings of other studies indicating that boys and girls with ID did not differ with regard to the incidence of emotional problems (Dekker & Koot, 2003;Einfeld & Tonge, 1996). This is in accordance with observations of some authors that neurological impairments and deficits in basic skills had a more significant role than gender in the etiology of emotional problems in children and adolescents with ID (Chadwick et al, 2000;Einfeld & Tonge, 1996). Significant age differences were determined in the subsample of TD adolescents.…”

Detecting Psychiatric Profile in Genetic Syndromes: A Comparison of Down Syndrome and Williams Syndrome

“…However this greater vulnerability in people with ID has received little attention in research and it is still to clarify whether the psychiatric phenotype varies despite a common diagnosis of ID [10][11][12]. Examining psychopathology in individuals with known genetic diagnosis may clarify this heterogeneity, leading to an increase understanding of gene-behavior pathways.…”