By Henny Kupferstein: For More Info, Go Here…
The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in adults and children who were exposed to applied behavior analysis (ABA) autism early childhood intervention.
Using an online questionnaire to survey autistic adults and caregivers of autistic children, the author collected data from 460 respondents on demographics, intervention types, and current pathological behaviors with symptom severity scales. This study noted PTSS in nearly half of ABA-exposed participants, while non-exposed controls had a 72 percent chance of being asymptomatic.
ABA satisfaction ratings for caregivers averaged neutral or mild satisfaction. In contrast, adult satisfaction with ABA was lower on average and also tended to take on either extremely low or extremely high ratings.
Exposure to ABA predicted a higher rate and more severe PTSS in participants, but the duration of exposure did not affect satisfaction with the intervention in caregivers.
