Intervention Aversiveness: Educators' Perceptions of the Need for Restrictions on Aversive Interventions

Abstract

A survey was conducted to examine educators' attitudes about interventions that might be used to decrease students' inappropriate behaviors. The purpose of the survey was to determine which interventions are considered aversive and which should be restricted; 158 educators responded. The results imply that educators tend to consider interventions that use physical pain or discomfort, or social humiliation, to be very aversive and tend to favor restricting the use of these interventions. This survey also indicates that educators view many other decelerative interventions as relatively mild aversives that they should be able to use. Implications are discussed in relation to the controversy in the literature over the use of aversive interventions.