Effects of noncontingent reinforcement on challenging behavior of adults with disabilities: a systematic review

Adults with disabilities often engage in challenging behavior that negatively impacts their quality of life. Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) is a behavioral intervention that can be used to treat challenging behavior. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the extant research on NCR for adults with disabilities. Specifically, we sought to evaluate the methodological quality of available experiments, the evidence of efficacy, descriptive characteristics of included studies, and publication volume over time. The results showed that NCR can be effective in reducing both automatically and socially maintained challenging behavior of adults with disabilities. An analysis of publication volume showed a steady decline in the number of NCR studies focused on adults since 2009. Overall, the results of this review indicate that NCR can be an effective challenging behavior treatment for adults with disabilities, however, there is a need for renewed research in this area.