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Care staff perceptions of challenging behaviour and fear of assault
- Authors:
- ROSE John L., CLEARY Adam
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 32(2), June 2007, pp.153-161.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This study investigates fear of assault in relation to exposure to challenging behaviour. The extent to which a social psychological model of fear of assault can be generalised to care staff working with individuals with intellectual disability (ID) was tested and the validity of the instruments used was assessed. A total of 87 care staff took part in a questionnaire-based study carried out in two separate and distinct organisations providing residential services to individuals with ID. In one service, staff exposure to challenging behaviour was high, with many clients having a forensic history, and in the other, staff exposure to challenging behaviour was low. According to one measure, care staff exposed to high levels of challenging behaviour were more fearful about work-related violence. However, no difference was found between the groups on the second measure. Regression analyses indicated some support for the generalisability of dimensions of the model of fear of assault in explaining feelings of unsafety. This study suggests that fear of assault may be an important factor when trying to understand care staff responses to challenging behaviour. However, the equivocal nature of the results raises questions about the validity of existing methods of assessing this fear.
Staying with people who slap us around: gender, juggling responsibilities and violence in paid (and unpaid) care work
- Author:
- BAINES Donna
- Journal article citation:
- Gender, Work and Organization, 13(2), March 2006, pp.129-151.
- Publisher:
- Blackwell
Little is actually known about women's occupational health, let alone how men and women may experience similar jobs and health risks differently. Drawing on data from a larger study of social service workers in Canada, this article examines four areas where gender is pivotal to the new ways of organizing caring labour, including the expansion of unpaid work and the use of personal resources to subsidize agency resources; gender-neutral violence; gender-specific violence and the juggling of home and work responsibilities. Collective assumptions and expectations about how men and women should perform care work result in men's partial insulation from the more intense forms of exploitation, stress and violence. This article looks at health risks, not merely as compensable occupational health concerns, but as avoidable products of forms of work organization that draw on notions of the endlessly stretchable capacity of women to provide care work in any context, including a context of violence. Indeed, the logic of women's elastic caring appear crucial to the survival of some agencies and the gender order in these workplaces.
Personality impact on experiences of strain among staff exposed to violence in care of people with intellectual disabilities
- Author:
- LUNDSTROM Mats
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 4(1), March 2007, pp.30-39.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Explored are the relationships among personality and emotional reactions, work-related strain, and experiences of burnout among staff exposed vs. not exposed to violence when caring for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Questionnaires measuring personality, emotional reactions, strain and burnout, and exposure to violence were distributed to staff (n = 112) working in 22 group homes for people with ID aged 18 years and older in a community in northern Sweden. The results did not show evidence of a direct influence of personality variables on exposure to violence when working with people with ID and no direct relationships were found between exposure to violence and the staff members' personality traits as measured with the Temperament and Character Inventory and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale. Although the influence of personality traits on how the staff members experienced violence could not be clearly determined, the authors found an association between personality and strain and the risk of burnout in that certain staff exposed to violence felt more emotionally exhausted than did staff who were not exposed. The knowledge of the relationships among violence, personality, and risk of burnout may be important for the understanding which staff need special supports when working with people with ID.