UNDERSTANDING FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE STAFF RESPONSES TO CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS - AN EXPLORATORY INTERVIEW STUDY

Staff beliefs about challenging behaviours, and their perception of th eir working environment, are important for two main reasons. Firstly, the manner in which staff define challenging behaviour affects who is labelled as a challenge, and who is referred to specialist services. S econdly, staff views of their working environment may help us to under stand why staff interact with people with learning disabilities in the apparently counter-habilitative ways outlined in previous reasearch. These issues were investigated in a systematic semi-structured intervi ew of 19 care staff. The interview covered staff definitions of challe nging behaviour, the reasons for its occurrence, and strategies for it s amelioration; their views on training and behavioural programmes; an d their reported emotional responses to challenging behaviour. Content analysis of the interview transcripts revealed several patterns that may help in generating an account of staff behaviour. For example, sta ff's beliefs about the causes of challenging behaviour were partially congruent with those of psychological analyses, but their reported int erventions for challenging behaviour could not be characterised as 'fu nctional' strategies. Staff reports also revealed some of the factors in the service environment that may explain why they respond 'inapprop riately' to challenging behaviour in the short term. These included: a n emphasis in staff training on techniques for managing behaviour rath er than understanding it, the (possibly resulting) belief that challen ging behaviour is to be controlled, and the aversive nature of challen ging behaviours. These findings, and their implications for research a nd practice, are discussed.