Treatment of anxiety in children with autism

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2016

First Committee Member

Ahearn, William

Second Committee Member

Hanley, Gregory

Third Committee Member

Bourret, Jason

Abstract

"Many individuals diagnosed with autism have also been diagnosed with anxiety. Although treatment of anxiety has been most frequently examined by the fields of clinical psychology and psychiatry, behavior analytic interventions have also been used. From a behavior analytic perspective, anxiety is a cluster of responses that constitute an emotion, part of which involves a private event as well as a group of responses emitted and/or elicited in the presence of a specific stimulus that signals an upcoming aversive event. Treatment of anxiety in the behavioral literature includes procedures such as exposure, modeling, and differential reinforcement. The purpose of the current study was to further examine a preliminary method for identifying and treating anxiety in children with autism. Three individuals with autism were identified as likely being anxious via an initial assessment of behavior where a signal was provided that an aversive event was imminent. Anxious responding occurred during the signal to the aversive event and a treatment package was evaluated in a multiple baseline across contexts design. Treatment consisted of teaching the students to engage in a behavioral chain of relaxing while gradually (across sessions) being exposed to the anxiety-evoking stimulus. Results showed that individuals tolerated anxiety-evoking contexts with minimal to no anxious responding after intervention. Caregiver ratings of mood were obtained during assessment and treatment. These data replicate existing research on behavioral interventions as an effective treatment for anxiety and provide an assessment to treatment strategy for identifying and treating anxious responding in children with autism and limited verbal skills."

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