Understanding ‘Pathological Demand Avoidance’ in children and adults: A scoping review protocol.

Oliver Lack*, Alex Griffin*, Emily Simonoff, Francesca Happe

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Working paper/PreprintPreprint

Abstract

Introduction: Pathological/Extreme Demand Avoidance (PDA) is a behavioural profile that is defined as a persistent avoidance of demands. Those with the profile often engage in extreme behaviours to avoid even apparently innocuous demands. Since its formulation, research and interest in PDA has increased, with recent reviews capturing the peer-reviewed studies completed into the early 2020s. However, these reviews mainly focused on children and often did not include non-peer reviewed grey literature, including various master’s and doctoral theses on the topic and work conducted by PDA charities – all can be very relevant for our understanding of the behavioural profile. This review aims to update these previous reviews by including more recent evidence, including adult work and grey literature, thus illuminating what is known about PDA through current empirical work. We aim to discuss what this work tells us about how PDA is conceptualised, the terminology used in empirical work to describe it, how it is being investigated, what may drive it, how it is measured, what interventions are known, and what gaps exist in the literature. Methods and Analysis: Using the scoping review framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005), and more recent guidance by Levac et al. (2010) and the JBI manual for evidence synthesis (Peters et al., 2024), we will collect papers that present data on PDA for review. Searches will be conducted on APA Psych Info, Embase, Medline, Web of Science and Open Aire Explore, with Google Scholar, ProQuest, OATD and other platforms used for grey literature. The terms Demand Avoidance, Pathological Demand Avoidance, Extreme Demand Avoidance, Demand Avoidance Phenomena and Rational Demand Avoidance will be searched. Screening will be conducted individually by the first two authors using the review software Covidence, with discrepancies resolved and piloting overseen by the two last authors. A similar process will be applied to data charting. Relevant findings will be discussed in relation to the stated questions. Ethics and Dissemination: This review will not collect new data, thus ethical approval is not required. Findings will be disseminated through publication, conferences, and other forms of media.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherPsyArXiv
Number of pages27
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

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