Challenging behaviors in adults with intellectual disabilities and ASD: Related variables

Abstract

Challenging behaviors, such as self-injury or aggression, are a very frequent reality in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and comorbid intellectual disability (ID), who manifest these behaviors to a great extent. On many occasions, challenging behaviors can be identified as a way of responding to the different demands of the environment, demands that are often difficult to integrate and assume. For example, stereotypies, a trait of ASD, are understood as a form of self-regulation. However, as is the case with disorders related to the internalizing spectrum (e.g., anxiety), and in line with current trends in psychopathology research, which advocates the study of transdiagnostic variables underlying (and therefore common) to different disorders that occur in comorbidity with great frequency, it is necessary to identify variables common to ASD and challenging behaviors. Identifying these variables and knowing their implication in the frequency of occurrence of challenging behaviors have a positive impact on interventions designed to reduce these behaviors. The inclusion of these variables in intervention programs is not only intended to reduce the manifestation of challenging behaviors but also to influence the improvement of the characteristic traits of ASD, such as difficulties in some executive functions, like inhibition or planning, or the needs evidenced in the regulation of emotions.