[Risk factors for self-injurious, aggressive, and stereotypic behavior in children and youths with visual impairments].
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.
1 Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg, Institut für Sonderpädagogik, Heidelberg, Deutschland.
Klaus
K
Sarimski
1 Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg, Institut für Sonderpädagogik, Heidelberg, Deutschland.
Markus
M
Lang
D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001766:Blindness / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D066107:Social Skills; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*
aggressive behavior; self-injurious behavior; stereotypic behavior; visual impairment