Staff reactions to challenging behaviour: a preliminary investigation into their development over the course of an interaction

Section A explores the insights offered by the qualitative literature to our understanding of staff responses to challenging behaviour within services for people with intellectual disabilities. The trustworthiness of the literature is examined. The studies are reviewed using the cognitive-emotional model as a guide and allowing for other themes to emerge. The review concludes with a discussion of the implications for future research and clinical practice.
Section B reports on a pilot study investigating staff reactions to challenging behaviour within services for people with intellectual disabilities. This study sought to explore the development of staff cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses to challenging behaviour over the course of challenging interactions. Video elicitation interviews were conducted with six staff members responding to the challenging behaviour of two service users. Interview data were subject to content analysis and an attributional analysis in order to assess their cognitive and emotional responses as they were at the time. In addition, staff behaviour was subject to descriptive and sequential analyses to explore their relationship with cognitive-emotional variables. Results indicated that staff experienced a wide range of cognitions and emotions during challenging interactions. Cognitions varied over the course of an incident. A tentative relationship was found between internal attributions of challenging behaviour, negative emotions and verbal responses by staff.
Staff members spontaneously made causal attributions of service user behaviour during challenging interactions. Rather than being a stable attribute of the staff member, attributions seem to vary to a degree across the course of an interaction. This has implications for both research and clinical practice.