Behavioral patterns of self-injurious behavior among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Self-injurious behaviors (SIBs) are a form of repetitive behaviors, that most commonly occur among children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder. Many studies had well documented about various patterns of SIBs and also said different factors responsible for SIBs. Aim: To identify the different patterns of self-injurious behavior among children with autism spectrum disorder Method: The study was conducted by a cross-sectional quantitative study design through a face-to-face survey among 120 participants who are parents of children with ASD. All the participants were taken through a purposive sampling technique. All participants received services from the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), Savar, Mirpur branch and different special school of dhaka. Participants was including by different criteria such as- parents of children (age 2-17) with ASD reporting self-injurious behaviors & children's diagnoses were confirmed through health professionals. The exclusion criteria of the study were parents whose children with medical condition, medication related self-injury or coexisting developmental/psychiatric disorders. To identify different behavioral patterns of SIBs used Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised and demographic factors. Descriptive statistics analysis was used for demographic factors and the Mann Whitney u test and Kruskal Wallis test was conducted to find out the association between demographic factors and SIBs. Result: Results suggested that there was male participants was greater than female and most of the participants age. The age range of the children was 2-17 years, where 76.7 % (92) were male and 23.3% (28) were female. Child age range between 2-5 years AbstractAbstract Abstract Abstract about 40.8% (49),6-9 years about 28.3% (34),10-13 years about 19.2% (23) and 14-17 years 11.7%(14). Their mean age was 7.79±4,084. Among seven SIBs the highest level of SIBs is hit self against surface or object with mean ± SD(0.90±0.965) and the lowest level of SIBs is insert finger or object with mean ± SD(0.04±0.201). Association between SIBs and demographic factors showed that SIBs were significantly not associated with a child’s age, gender, attend in school and take any medication. Conclusion: Self-injurious behaviors (SIBs) a repetitive behavior and nowadays it become a concerning issue in ASD children and effective intervention should be taken to reduce this behavior. As ASD children increase day by day, SIBs also show among children with ASD gradually. This study found that children with ASD show different patterns of SIBs. The current studies did not find other behavioral, somatic, environmental, or developmental factors that act as a risk factor. So, future research should be conducted on other factors and effective treatment of SIBs among children with ASD. Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder, self-injurious behavior, repetitive restricted behavior, challenging behavior, self-injury