Risk factors for self-injurious, aggressive, and stereotypic behavior in children and youths with visual impairments

Abstract

To increase the limited knowledge concerning the form and risk factors of self-injurious, aggressive, and stereotypic behavior in children and youths with visual impairments. Parents of 83 children and youths with visual impairments report on the characteristics of visual impairment, the social-communicative competence of their children, and the frequency and severity of self-injurious, aggressive, and stereotypic behaviors. Stereotypic behaviors are reported more often than the other behavioral abnormalities. The frequencies of stereotypic and self-injurious behaviors are correlated with each other. Children with higher social-communicative competence received lower scores in stereotypic and self-injurious behaviors (range of correlation coefficients between –.26 and –.48). Furthermore, the developmental delay of cognitive and adaptive competence is associated with the frequency and severity of these self-injurious behaviors (F = 4.65, p = .012/F > 5.65, p < 0.01). For blind children, the parents describe a higher frequency and severity of stereotypic and self-injurious behaviors. The frequency of self-injurious behavior is lower for children in an integrative setting. Frequency and severity of stereotypic and self-injurious behavior varies with characteristics of the child’s visual impairment and additional disabilities. This association is not supported for aggressive behaviors.