Correlates of direct care staffs’ attitudes towards aggression of persons with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

Background and aimTo explain direct care staff's attitudes (responsive or rejecting) towards aggression of clients with intellectual disability (ID), data were collected about client characteristics as well as individual and team characteristics of 475 direct care staff members, working in 71 teams. Method and resultsMultilevel analyses revealed that a positive team climate was positively associated with both a rejecting and responsive attitude towards aggression. Senior staff members and females showed a less responsive attitude towards aggression, whereas a relatively high percentage of females in a team and a positive attitude towards external professionals were associated with a more responsive attitude towards aggression. Unexpectedly, staff who experienced less verbal and/or physical aggressive incidents of their clients with ID showed a more rejecting attitude towards aggression. Finally, characteristics of the clients with ID accounted for the largest part of the variance in the attitude towards aggression of direct care staff, in particular psychiatric diagnoses. Conclusions and implicationsFurther research is necessary in order to understand how team processes affect the attitude towards aggression of direct care staff. Further it is recommended to provide direct care staff with knowledge about mental disorders in clients with ID.