Exploring and Improving the Effectiveness of Treatments for Severe Challenging Behavior
A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Psychiatric, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 55
Special Issue Editors
Interests: caregiver adherence; assessment and treatment of severe challenging behavior; treatment relapse; treatment durability
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Researchers and professionals in the field of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are cordially invited to contribute to a Special Issue of Behavioral Sciences dedicated to exploring the efficacy of treatments for severe challenging behavior in ASD. Challenging behaviors, such as self-injury, property destruction, and aggression, are commonly observed in individuals with ASD. These behaviors often have a negative impact on quality of life for these individuals and their family members. Examining the variables that may impact the effectiveness of treatments for challenging behavior could have socially significant implications for individuals with ASD and their family members.
This Special Issue will present innovative interventions and procedures, evidence-based practices, and exploratory analyses designed to advance our understanding of variables that impact the effectiveness of treatments for challenging behavior. We welcome original research articles, replication studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, theoretical or conceptual papers, translational research, and pilot studies. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the clinical utility of treatments for challenging behavior, treatment feasibility and acceptability, treatment generalization, treatment maintenance, the long-term outcomes of interventions, and the cost-effectiveness and scalability of treatments. We also encourage submissions that discuss related factors that may impact the effectiveness of treatments for challenging behavior, such as caregiver and professional training, multi-disciplinary approaches to care, and the design of ecologically valid treatments.
Dr. Katherine R. Brown
Dr. Kayla Randall
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- caregiver training
- caregiver adherence
- treatment generalization
- treatment durability and maintenance
- ecological validity
- professional training
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