Staff attributions about challenging behaviours of people with intellectual disabilities and transactional stress process: a qualitative study

Background Staff explanations about challenging behaviours of people with intellectual disabilities are purported to play a significant role in the way they respond to them. Despite attempts made in research to understand the mechanisms of causality, a lack of association between attributions, emotions and behaviours is reported. This study investigates these relationships within a broader framework including attributions in the transactional stress model of Lazarus and Folkman. Method A qualitative design has been selected; semi-structured interview format was used in order to investigate implication of attributions in stress regarding Weiner's model of helping behaviour. A case study method has been adopted to allow consideration of ecological data, a case study representing a special encounter with a challenging behaviour. Categorical analysis was conducted. Results The results suggest three main issues. First, it appears that Weiner's model is too restrictive in order to explain the complexity of contextualised encounters. Second, a need to differentiate types of attributions within a temporal perspective is highlighted. Finally, consideration of the coping role of attributions is suggested. Conclusions A need to extent the research concerning attribution is suggested. The insertion of research into ecological contexts and the introduction of coping concept regarding staff attributions of challenging behaviours would allow a broader view of the role of attributions.