Contextual variables affecting aggressive behaviour in individuals with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities who live in a residential facility.
Task and social demands are the biggest sparks of aggression in residential adults with mild ID—soften your instructions first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Staff at one Dutch home filled out a survey. They listed what happened right before adults with mild or borderline intellectual disability hit, kicked, or yelled.
The survey asked about social moments, task demands, noise, and other everyday events. No one tried a new treatment; they just mapped the sparks.
What they found
Social corrections and everyday task requests topped the list. When staff said "please sit" or "time for chores," aggression often followed.
Noise, crowds, or denied items also showed up, but less often. The picture is simple: ask someone to do something and risk a blow-up.
How this fits with other research
Heo et al. (2008) watched the same kind of home and logged 639 real incidents. They also saw task demands light the fuse, so the two studies match.
Hattier et al. (2011) surveyed over 4,000 people statewide. They linked psychiatric labels to aggression types, widening the lens beyond single-home triggers.
S-Johnson et al. (2009) tracked the same adults for two years. They found one in four stopped being aggressive, reminding us that today’s trigger may fade tomorrow.
Why it matters
When you write a behaviour plan, put task demands and social corrections at the top of your antecedent list. Front-load choices, soften instructions, and reinforce compliance right away. You can’t remove every demand, but you can make them feel safer and earn quicker wins.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Aggression is a common type of problem behaviour in clients with mild to borderline intellectual disability who live in a residential facility. We explored contextual events that elicit aggressive behaviour and variables that were associated with such events. METHOD: Respondents were 87 direct-care staff members of 87 clients with aggressive behaviour who lived in a residential facility. Staff members completed the Contextual Assessment Inventory (CAI) and a questionnaire on demographic information and types, frequency and severity of aggressive behaviour. Internal consistency of the total CAI was excellent (alpha = 0.95), and Cronbach alpha's for the CAI sub-scales ranged from 0.75 to 0.93. Inter-rater agreement for the CAI could be considered good (mean intra-class correlation coefficient = 0.63). RESULTS: Both social and task-related events were reported to evoke aggressive behaviour of clients most often. Negative interactions, task characteristics and daily routines relatively often evoked aggressive behaviour while an uncomfortable environment, medication, illness and physiological states (i.e. physical and biological events) evoked aggressive behaviour least often. Mean CAI sub-scale scores were significantly related to gender, IQ and frequency of aggressive behaviour. CONCLUSION: The present study extends our knowledge regarding events that are associated with an increased probability of aggressive behaviour. Knowledge of these contextual variables may be helpful in designing programmes (e.g. applied behaviour analysis, social skills training and cognitive behavioural therapies) for the management and prevention of aggressive behaviour in clients with mild to borderline intellectual disability who live in a residential facility.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2009 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01132.x