THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS

Aspects of the topography and behavioural function underlying the chal lenging behaviours of all people with learning disabilities and challe nging behaviour (n = 70) in a defined geographical area were investiga ted. Results indicated that: (1) more severe challenging behaviours we re shown by people with more severe disabilities; (2) a significant mi nority (44%) of people showed more than one form of challenging behavi our, this rising to 79% among people with more severe challenging beha viours; and (3) cross-sectional analyses revealed specific clusters of problematic, aggressive and self-injurious behaviours. Analysis of in formation derived from the Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) indicated that (5) the most common functions of challenging behaviours appeared to be 'self-stimulation' (for self-injury, destructiveness and 'other ' challenging behaviours) and securing the attention of carers (for ag gressive behaviours). However, (6) parametric analyses failed to ident ify any consistent relationships between the form and function of an i ndividual's challenging behaviour for aggressive, destructiveness and 'other' challenging behaviours, but (7) clients with self-injurious be haviour were significantly more likely to score highly on the 'self-st imulation' sub-scale than other sub-scales of the MAS. Finally, (8) si gnificant consistency of behavioural functions across different forms of challenging behaviours shown by the same individual were found for the two combinations of aggressive-destructive behaviours and self-inj ury-'other' behaviours.