The effectiveness of systemic psychological interventions for young people with intellectual disabilities and behavioural problems: A systematic review

Abstract

Antisocial behaviour in young people is a widespread issue. Young people with borderlinemild Intellectual Disabilities (ID) are often not recognised or provided with support for their learning and are more likely to engage in antisocial behaviour than young people without ID (Hall, 2000). Research has indicated that these young people benefit from systemic psychological interventions which target the systems around them (Tausendfreund et al., 2016). Whilst the literature base for interventions that reduce behaviour problems is vast, there has been limited research for young people with borderline-mild ID and there have been no previous systematic reviews focused on this group. The objective was to discover which systemic psychological interventions are effective for young people with borderline-mild ID and significant behaviour problems. PsychINFO and Web of Science databases were searched and after duplicates removal, 4018 articles were screened via titles and abstracts. 3862 records were excluded at that stage, and a further 150 were excluded at the full text screening stage. One additional paper was identified, resulting in seven studies included in this review. The Quality Appraisal Checklist for Quantitative Intervention Studies (QACQIS) (NICE, 2012) was used to analyse methodological quality. Methodological quality varied in accordance with study design. Six different systemic psychological interventions were identified, and even though the research indicated positive results for all interventions, it was concluded that Parent Management Training, Mindfulness Based Positive Behaviour Support, Non-Violent Resistance-Intellectual Disabilities, and Multisystemic Therapy-ID showed most promise as equitable systemic psychological interventions for reducing behaviour problems in young people with borderline-mild ID. It was difficult to draw direct comparisons between studies due to variation in study design and outcome measurements. Multi-site, multi-informant randomised research should be carried out in the future.