The cognitive emotional responses of staff and people with intellectual disabilities to the challenging behavior of people with intellectual disabilities

Objectives: There is now a body of research into the attributions that carers make of the challenging behavior of people with intellectual disabilities; however the attributions that people with intellectual disabilities make have not been studied. This paper describes the attributions that people with intellectual disabilities make of challenging behavior and compares them to those of their carers. Methods: Twenty-three day-service staff and 34 adults with intellectual disabilities completed measures of attribution, optimism, emotion and need for help and gave open-ended responses to questions about the causes of and potential interventions for challenging behaviors. Results: The overall pattern of attribution, emotion, optimism and intention to help is similar for people with intellectual disabilities and staff. However, compared to staff, people with intellectual disabilities were less optimistic and less happy about challenging behavior. Conclusions: This area of research will help identify the impacts of challenging behavior on the well being of people with intellectual disabilities and may help structure support for people who live alongside those who challenge.