Characteristics of residential retarded clients as predictors of staff expectations and frustrations
✍ Scribed by David Burke; Marie Burke; Rex Forehand
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1987
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 405 KB
- Volume
- 2
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1072-0847
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of four client characteristics-functioning level, aggressive behavior, self-injurious behavior, and attractiveness-with staff expectations of and frustration with clients. Forty staff members who worked with severely and profoundly retarded individuals served as participants. Staff members rated each client with whom they worked on the extent to which the client could behave better and learn faster as well as the level of frustration experienced in working with the client. A client's functioning level was related to staff perceptions such that the higher the functioning level, the more the client was seen as having the potential to behave better or learn faster than (s)he was presently demonstrating. Staff frustration was related to client aggression indicating that as aggression increased so did staff frustration in working with that client. Implications of the results are discussed.
A continuing concern in the area of residential care for mentally retarded children and adults is the issue of staff dissatisfaction, which can ultimately lead to problematic turnover rates among direct-care employees. As reported by Holburn and Forrester (1984), estimates of annual turnover rates for these employees range from 26% (Sckeerenburger, 1978) to 32.8% (Lakin & Bruininks, 1981). Resulting from this turnover phenomenon are *The cooperation of the staff at the Georgia Retardation Center, Athens, and the support of the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research in the preparation of the manuscript are gratefully acknowledged.