Reducing Public Masturbation in Individuals With ASD: An Assessment of Response Interruption Procedures.

Individuals with autism may engage in sexual behavior at inappropriate times and/or in inappropriate places. The current study investigated the effects of response interruption and redirection (RIRD) and response interruption (RI) on public masturbation (PM) of children and adolescents with autism. Initial assessments showed that PM was maintained by automatic reinforcement. During the treatment evaluation phase, we compared RIRD and RI to determine whether either procedure was successful in decreasing the duration of PM. In the RIRD condition, contingent on the occurrence of any PM the participant completed physical activities involving both hands (e.g., moving chairs, touching toes). In the RI condition, the therapist interrupted all instances of PM using physical and verbal prompts (e.g., saying in a neutral tone, "Stop that" and moving hands away from genitals). Both procedures were effective in decreasing the duration of PM but RI required fewer resources and less time. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are reviewed.

Therapists' assessment and treatment of internet infidelity cases.

In this study, we investigated through an Internet survey of 508 practicing marriage and family therapists which treatment decisions varied by gender of the client and background variables of therapists. The subjects responded to several typical Internet infidelity scenarios. We varied the gender of the person initiating the infidelity for half of one sample. We also asked the family therapy participants to respond to how they might assess and treat each presenting problem. They also evaluated problem severity, prognosis of the case, number of sessions necessary for treatment, and the extent to which a therapist would focus individually or relationally. Results indicate that there were differences in how therapists assessed and treated clients based on client gender, therapists' age, therapists' gender, how religious therapists reported they were, and the extent of therapists' personal experience with infidelity.