Teaching young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to recognize and respond to coworker victimization

Abstract

AbstractAdults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are at risk of experiencing social victimization and should be taught to respond to potential victimization they may encounter in a workplace. Using a multiple probe across participants design, the current study evaluated the effectiveness of behavioral skills with multiple exemplar training (BS + MET) to teach four young adults with IDD a four‐step response to coworker victimization protocol. Two participants demonstrated mastery of this response after only BS + MET, while the other two participants demonstrated mastery of the response after BS + MET and additional in situ training (IST). Three of the four participants demonstrated generalization across settings, across exemplars, and with coworkers, and they maintained the response up to two months after the completion of training. This study expands research of BS + MET and IST to teach safety skills to adults with IDD. Implications for further research are discussed.