The development of an instrument to evaluate treatment intrusiveness for individuals with severe and challenging behavior

The current study examined the use of an instrument designed to evaluate the intrusiveness of treatments for addressing problem behaviors. Participants read case vignettes with proposed treatments and then completed a checklist of factors that could influence the degree of treatment intrusiveness. Results indicated that the participants were capable of using the instrument to differentiate among treatments that were considered to have varying levels of treatment intrusiveness. Implications of using a systematic method for evaluating the intrusiveness of treatments are discussed.