Abstract
The prevalence of intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) affects approximately one in six youth under the age of 17 years. This population requires specialized medical and behavioral healthcare interventions. Board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) play an integral role in the behavioral healthcare of individuals diagnosed with IDD, particularly those engaging in problem behavior. As the field evolves, BCBAs find themselves delivering services targeting problem behaviors exhibited by individuals with IDD in varied settings. While this is a necessary expansion of services, efforts to ensure the social validity of our practices given different stakeholder groups are essential. This chapter describes the history and application of social validity practices within the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA). We emphasize the ways social validity can be assessed depending on the stakeholder and how to support the customer (i.e., recipient of ABA services), consultant (i.e., provider delivering services), and society (e.g., community, regulatory agencies) in a socially valid manner with behavior-analytic practices when serving individuals diagnosed with IDD engaging in problem behavior. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future directions for researchers and practitioners.
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Notes
- 1.
Merriam-Webster (n.d.) defines aberrant as deviating from the usual or natural type and provides synonyms such as atypical and abnormal. Other times “challenging behavior” is used. Aberrant is used here as it denotes deviation from the standard (assumed to be a standard set by others in the society experiencing the behavior), which aligns with the concept of social validity.
- 2.
Mild, moderate, and severe descriptors are not intended to reduce the impact of the indicators on the person, significant others, or community members. The authors recognize supporting individuals with IDD and associated aberrant behavior presents challenges. For example, individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are provided one of three severity levels (i.e., requiring very substantial support, requiring substantial support, and requiring support), which reflects the ongoing need for support inherent with the diagnosis.
- 3.
Preference of labels is a social validity concern. As demonstrated by Deber et al. (2005) individuals receiving healthcare services prefer the term “patient” compared to consumer, client, or customer. For consistency purposes only, “client” is utilized within this chapter.
- 4.
Michigan is not the only state with explicit policies specific to self-determination or similar philosophies. For example, the State of Pennsylvania advocates for similar approaches via an “Everyday Lives” framework (Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, 2021). These examples are provided solely based on familiarity by the authors. Additionally, although the Michigan resource states “Mental Health” within the title, it is applicable to individuals with IDD.
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Quigley, S.P., Romani, P.W., Field, S., Ellwood, G. (2024). Social Validity Assessment. In: Luiselli, J.K., Bird, F.L., Maguire, H., Gardner, R.M. (eds) Behavior Safety and Clinical Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Evidence-Based Practices in Behavioral Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54923-6_4
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