This study describes the use of an operant methodology to assess functional relationships between self-injury and specific environmental events. The self-injurious behaviors of nine developmentally disabled subjects were observed during periods of brief, repeated exposure to a series of analogue conditions. Each condition differed along one or more of the following dimensions: (1) play materials (present vs absent), (2) experimenter demands (high vs low), and (3) social attention (absent vs noncontingent vs contingent). Results showed a great deal of both between and within-subject variability. However, in six of the nine subjects, higher levels ofself-injury were consistently associated with a specific stimulus condition, suggesting that within-subject variability was a function of distinct features of the social and/or physical environment. These data are discussed in light of previously suggested hypotheses for the motivation of self-injury, with particular emphasis on their implications for the selection of suitable treatments.The description, incidence and damaging effects of self-injury, as well as numerous attempts to control it, have been repeatedly documented in the literature. Self-injury is a bizarre and often chronic form of aberrant behavior, the etiology of which is at best poorly understood. It poses serious risks to those who engage in the behavior, and it represents a formidable challenge to those who are responsible for treating it.Most of the research on self-injury over the past 15 years has focused on discovering means for its effective elimination. The greatest success has been found using methods based on operant condition-

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Findings support the efficacy of an inpatient interdisciplinary behavioral rehabilitation approach to the treatment of pain-associated disability in pediatric patients.