Behavioural outcomes of deinstitutionalisation for people with intellectual disability: A review of US studies conducted between 1980 and 1999

Ten years ago, we published a summary of all US studies published between 1976 and 1988, inclusive, that measured behavioural outcomes associated with the movement of people with mental retardation from public institutions to community residential settings. Those studies found with remarkable consistency that positive adaptive behaviour changes were associated with people moving from institutions to community homes. Now, we revisit this topic to examine whether research conducted since 1988 has continued to support these earlier findings. In this review of literature, 33 of 250 US studies of residential service outcomes met our inclusion criteria of scope, quality, timeliness and design (longitudinal or contrast group study). As in our earlier review, almost all of the reviewed studies found statistically significant increases in overall adaptive behaviour scores associated with deinstitutionalisation. Three studies published since 1990 reported statistically significant improvements in challenging behaviour associated with movement to the community, and nine reported no significant differences in challenging behaviour for persons who moved compared with persons who remained in institutions.