The prevalence of challenging behaviors: a total population study

A total population study was undertaken in two areas of England to identify the situation and characteristics of people reported to exhibit challengin g behaviors. We found that: (1) challenging behaviors are shown by 10-15% o f people with mental retardation who are in contact with educational, healt h or social care services for people with mental retardation; (2) the most common forms of challenging behaviors reported were 'other' behavior (shown by 9%-12% of all people screened), aggression (7%), destructive behavior ( 4%-5%) and self-injury (4%); (3) the majority of people identified showed t wo or more of these four general forms of challenging behavior; (4) approxi mately two-thirds of the people identified were boys/men; (5) close to two- thirds of the people identified were adolescents or young adults; (6) appro ximately 50% of the people identified as showing more demanding challenging behavior were living with their families; (7) people who showed more deman ding challenging behavior were more likely to need greater levels of assist ance in eating, dressing and washing, be incontinent and have more restrict ed expressive and receptive communication. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.