Community staff causal attributions about challenging behaviours in people with intellectual disabilities

Recent theoretically-driven models have suggested that care staff causal attributions about challenging behaviours may influence staff intervention behaviour. Previous research on staff attributions has been concerned mainly with institution staff. The present study focused on community staff attributions as compared with those of inexperienced healthcare workers (student nurses). A total sample of 94 participants were asked to rate the likely causes of one of three topographies of challenging behaviour (self-injury, aggression orstereotypy) using 25 attributional items presented in a questionnaire. Results showed that experienced care staff and inexperienced students differed in their views on likely causes of challenging behaviours, although this was not restricted to a single type of causal factor. The experienced staff as a group rated social and emotional variables as likely causes of challenging behaviours. Finally, both experienced and inexperienced participants distinguished between behavioural topographies in terms of their causes. Stereotypy was viewed as a self-stimulatory activity, whilst aggression and self-injury were rated as more likely to be caused by social and emotional factors. The implications of research in this area for staff training and behavioural intervention are outlined. In addition, suggestions for future research are discussed.