Coping, burnout, and emotion in staff working in community services for people with challenging behaviors

Staff in mental retardation services identify challenging behavior as a sig nificant source of work-related stress. However, there has been little exam ination of the psychological processes that may explain an association betw een challenging behavior and staff stress. In the present study; direct-car e staff (N = 83) from five community services completed a questionnaire on their emotional reactions to aggressive behavior, the coping strategies tha t they employ, and their experience of burnout. Staff more frequently repor ted using adaptive strategies than maladaptive ones to cope with aggressive behavior. Regression analyses showed that staff disengagement and adaptive coping strategies and their emotional reactions to aggressive behavior pre dicted burnout scores. Implications of these results for future research an d for staff mental health are discussed.