Staff behavior toward children and adolescents in a residential facility: a self-report questionnaire.
A short staff self-report form gives reliable numbers on how residential workers treat youth with mild ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked residential staff to fill out a new 12-page form.
The form asked how staff talk, play, and set limits with youth who have mild or borderline intellectual disability.
They checked if answers stayed the same when staff took the form twice and if scores lined up with real behavior records.
What they found
The Staff Behavior toward Clients (SBC) form held together well.
High scorers really did work with calmer kids; low scorers worked with kids who had more behavior problems.
The tool is ready for everyday use in group homes and schools.
How this fits with other research
Ramer et al. (1977) did the opposite job: they taught staff seven friendly moves like smiling and giving reasons.
Spanoudis et al. (2011) now gives us a yardstick to see if that training sticks.
Morosohk et al. (2025) used covert checks to keep staff searching rooms the right way; the SBC could replace sneak peeks by letting staff report on themselves.
Palka Bayard de Volo et al. (2021) built a dental check form for adults with ID; both papers show that short staff-filled tools can be trusted when experts are not in the room.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, free way to track how your team treats youth.
Give the SBC every quarter; praise high scores and train where scores dip.
No extra observers, no cameras—just honest data you can act on tomorrow.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine psychometric properties of the Staff Behavior toward Clients questionnaire (SBC), a self-report measure for care staff working with children and adolescents with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities in residential care. Ninetynine care staff completed the SBC and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for 99 of their clients. Factor analysis revealed four factors (i.e. behavior regulation, client-directed care, teaching and empowerment). Results indicated excellent internal consistency of all factors and ability of the SBC to detect differences in client populations with respect to behavior problems. These data suggest that the SBC could provide a reliable and valid measure of staff behavior toward clients in residential facilities.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.05.028