title: Staff reactions to challenging behaviour: an observation study.
abstract: Staff reactions play an important role in the development and maintaining of clients' challenging behaviour. Because there is a paucity of research on staff reactions in naturalistic settings, this study examined sequential associations between challenging behaviour and staff reactions by means of a descriptive analysis. We analysed video recordings of the reactions of 10 staff members towards challenging behaviour of clients with severe or profound intellectual disabilities who displayed self-injurious behaviour, stereotyped behaviour and/or aggressive/destructive behaviour. As expected, the staff members used much verbal behaviours after challenging behaviour and often immediately tried to stop the challenging behaviour. Furthermore, staff often gave attention to challenging behaviour whereas offering or taking away material or tasks were less frequently observed reactions. Reactions to aggressive/destructive behaviour and self-injurious behaviour were quite similar. After stereotyped behaviour, not that many reactions occurred significantly more. Although this study has clinical implications and made a valuable contribution to research on staff reactions to challenging behaviour, more research is needed, more specifically, about the effectiveness of these staff reactions.
authors.affiliation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vesaliusstraat 2, P.O. Box 3765, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. greet.lambrechts@ped.kuleuven.be
authors.forename: Greet
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lambrechts
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Van Den Noortgate
authors.forename: Lieve
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Eeman
authors.forename: Bea
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D011364:Professional Practice; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior; D014743:Videotape Recording; D055815:Young Adult