The relationship between challenging behaviour, burnout and cognitive variables in staff working with people who have intellectual disabilities.
Staff fear of assault, not the challenging behaviour itself, drives burnout.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked staff who support adults with intellectual disability to fill out three short surveys. One survey counted how often clients hit, bit, or screamed. Another asked how drained, cynical, or ineffective the staff felt. The last one asked how scared they were of being hurt.
The researchers then used statistics to see if fear linked challenging behaviour to burnout.
What they found
More challenging behaviour did not burn staff out directly. Instead, the fear of being assaulted carried the whole effect. When fear was removed, the behaviour alone no longer predicted exhaustion.
In plain words: scared staff burn out, not staff who simply see lots of behaviour.
How this fits with other research
Hastings et al. (2002) already showed that staff who feel low self-efficacy react more emotionally. Keintz et al. (2011) move the lens from the worker’s confidence to the worker’s fear, tightening the causal chain.
Bromley et al. (1998) saw stressed staff give fewer positive interactions. The new study explains one reason for that stress: fear of assault.
Jennett et al. (2003) list male sex and severe ID as top risk markers for aggression. Keintz et al. (2011) add the staff side — those same risk markers may scare workers into burnout.
Why it matters
You can’t erase every hit or scream, but you can lower staff fear. Teach practical safety skills, rehearse escape routines, and give clear post-incident debriefs. When fear drops, burnout drops — even if the behaviour stays. Add fear questions to your staff surveys and target those scores in your next supervision cycle.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: There is evidence to suggest a relationship between the way in which staff perceive challenging behaviour and burnout in staff working with people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and challenging behaviour. However, the evidence of a direct link is equivocal and it is possible that a number of different variables mediate this relationship. The aim of the study is to confirm whether there is a relationship between challenging behaviour and staff burnout, and in addition, to test whether staff perceptions about challenging behaviour mediate this relationship. METHOD: Seventy-eight staff completed measures of burnout, challenging behaviour and perceptions about challenging behaviour. The perceptions explored included beliefs about the timeline of behaviour, staff's perception of whether they themselves have control over the behaviour, beliefs about clients' ability to control the behaviour and staff's negative emotional responses. RESULTS: Significant positive correlations were found between challenging behaviour and burnout, challenging behaviour and cognitive variables, and cognitive variables and burnout. Regression analyses demonstrated that negative emotions mediate the relationship between challenging behaviour and burnout. CONCLUSIONS: The results show evidence that there is a relationship between challenging behaviour and burnout that is mediated by negative emotion, namely the fear of potential assault.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2011 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01438.x