Training emotional intelligence related to treatment skills of staff working with clients with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour.
Four short meetings plus video feedback raise emotional intelligence of ID support staff.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers split 66 support staff into two groups. One group got a four-month emotional-intelligence course plus video review of their work. The other group waited.
Staff supported adults with intellectual disability and challenging behavior. Trainers filmed real shifts, then replayed clips to show how staff handled feelings.
What they found
At the end, the trained staff scored much higher on an emotional-intelligence test. The wait-list group did not change.
Staff also gave warmer ratings to their own skills. No change was seen in client behavior, but the study was not looking for that.
How this fits with other research
Finke et al. (2017) warned that UK community teams feel burned-out and lack vision. Amore et al. (2011) gives a fix: EQ training lifts staff spirit.
García-Villamisar et al. (2017) showed that purpose-driven motivation lowers anxiety when staff face weekly aggression. Pair their idea with EQ training and you may get a double shield.
Mulder et al. (2020) ran a similar RCT with teachers. Both studies used short behavioral workshops and both saw quick staff gains. The pattern is repeating across jobs.
Why it matters
If your team feels fried, four low-dose meetings plus video feedback can recharge emotional skills. You do not need a year-long course. Start by filming a 10-minute interaction, watch it with the staff, and label emotions you see. Build the clip into supervisions. Happier staff stay longer and react calmer when hits, bites, or screams erupt.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Staff working with clients with intellectual disabilities (ID) who display challenging behaviour may contribute to the continuation of this behaviour, because it causes emotional reactions such as anxiety, anger and annoyance, which may prohibit adequate response behaviour. To enhance staff behaviour and treatment skills a training that aimed at improving emotional intelligence (EQ) was developed. AIM: The goal of this study was to assess whether an EQ training in combination with a video-feedback training programme improves emotional intelligence of staff working with clients with ID and challenging behaviour. METHODS: Participants were 60 staff members working with individuals with ID and challenging behaviour. Thirty-four staff members participated in a 4-month training programme and 26 constituted the control group. A pretest-posttest control group design was used. Effectiveness was assessed by using the Dutch version of the Bar-On EQ-i and the judgments of experts on emotional intelligence. RESULTS: Emotional intelligence of the experimental group changed significantly more than that of the control group. Judgments of experts on emotional intelligence indicated that the change of emotional intelligence of the experimental group improved positively. CONCLUSIONS: The positive effect of the training programme on emotional intelligence is consistent with previous research on emotional intelligence and suggests that emotional intelligence of staff working with clients with ID and challenging behaviour can be influenced by training.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2011 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01367.x