Work

Further evidence of renewal in automatically maintained behavior

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Renewal is a relapse phenomenon that refers to the recurrence of a previously reduced behavior following a change in stimulus conditions. Muething et al. (2022) examined the phenomenology of renewal among individuals with automatically maintained challenging behavior treated at an outpatient clinic. We replicated their findings by retrospectively examining renewal across various topographies of automatically maintained behavior treated at an inpatient hospital, and we extended their work by also examining differences across subtypes of automatically maintained self-injurious behavior. The prevalence of renewal was comparable to that observed by Muething et al., supporting the notion that automatically maintained challenging behavior is susceptible to relapse phenomena. Furthermore, renewal was twice as likely to occur for individuals with Subtype 2 versus Subtype 1 self-injurious behavior, providing additional evidence of behavioral differentiation between subtypes. Our findings suggest that even after apparent stability in treatment, practitioners should remain vigilant for the recurrence of automatically maintained behavior during generalization.

Source: Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

DOI: 10.1002/jaba.1055

Authors: John Michael Falligant, Michael P. Kranak, Drew E. Piersma, Ryan Benson, Jonathan D. Schmidt, Michelle A. Frank‐Crawford

Institutions: Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Oakland University

Language: English

Topic: Behavioral and Psychological Studies

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development