EXPERIENCED AND INEXPERIENCED HEALTH-CARE WORKERS BELIEFS ABOUT CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS

Within a behavioural framework, staff responses to challenging behavio urs have been identified as likely to ensure the long-term maintenance of such behaviour. However, little has been done to understand why st aff behave as they do. The present paper hypothesized that staffs beli efs about the causes of challenging behaviours may be an important fac tor in determining staff responses to it. Beliefs about causes of thre e topographies of challenging behaviour (self-injury, stereotypy and a ggression) were elicited from 148 experienced and 98 inexperienced ins titutional staff and nursing students using a questionnaire measure. R esults showed that experienced participants held beliefs that were mor e consistent with contemporary theories of challenging behaviours than inexperienced participants. Experienced participants also distinguish ed between the behaviours in terms of their causes. These data were in terpreted as reflecting a 'needs-based' rather than a 'functional' app roach to intervention for challenging behaviours. Implications for sta ff training, community living and future research on staff behaviour w ere briefly considered.