CARE STAFF RESPONSES TO PEOPLE WITH LEARNING-DISABILITIES AND CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR - A COGNITIVE-EMOTIONAL ANALYSIS

This study explores the application of Weiner's cognitive-emotional mo del of helping behaviour to care staff responses to challenging behavi our of people with learning disabilities. Participants were 20 residen tial care staff who worked with people with challenging behaviour and 20 who did not. Six examples of challenging behaviour were presented, and for each behaviour participants Were asked to give a probable caus e, rate attributions of stability, internality, globality and controll ability for their cause, their optimism for change of the behaviour, t heir evaluation of the behaviour and a person showing the behaviour, t heir emotional response to the behaviour and their willingness to put extra effort in to helping change the behaviour. Data were analysed us ing correlation and regression methods. Carers working with people wit h challenging behaviour mere more likely to evaluate the person more p ositively and report they would be more likely to offer extra effort i n helping. A path analysis showed that helping behaviour was best pred icted by optimism, which was best predicted by negative emotion which was best predicted by the attribution of controllability. We conclude that attributions and emotions reported by carers in response to chall enging behaviour are consistent with Weiner's cognitive-emotional mode l of helping behaviour. Formulating carer behaviour using such models offers the possibility of using cognitive-behavioural methods in worki ng with staff beliefs, emotions and behaviour in response to challengi ng behaviour.