| Summary: | Introduction: People with learning disabilities who display challenging behaviour are significantly more likely to experience a number of negative life events. The empirical evidence base highlights that in order to understand and successfully intervene in challenging behaviour it is essential that staff reactions are understood. It is considered that staff responses tend to be counter-habilitative and are likely to shape and maintain challenging behaviour. A number of factors may contribute to staff responses including: lack of knowledge, organisational factors, staff attributions and emotional responses. This thesis aims to explore the impact of a one day workshop and four oneto- one support sessions on participant's level of knowledge, attributions and emotional responses. Method: An experimental, repeated measures design was employed in this study. Fifty-four staff members who worked in inpatient services for people with learning disabilities who displayed challenging behaviour were recruited as participants. Participants in the experimental condition attended a one-day workshop and four oneto- one support sessions with the principle researcher. All participants completed outcome measures on four occasions: pre and post training; post one-to-one support sessions and at 12-week follow-up. Outcome measures assessed behavioural knowledge, attributions and emotional responses. Results: All data were analysed using quantitative, parametric analyses which examine the interaction between groups across conditions. There were no statistically significant interactions in measures which examine behavioural knowledge and overall adoption of a behavioural perspective. There were statistically significant interactions in some measures which examine attributions between groups across conditions but not in others. There were no statistically significant interactions in measures which examine emotional reactions between groups across conditions. Discussion: The findings of this study would suggest that the combination of training and one-to-one support sessions increased the likelihood that the participant would shift their attributions from an internal emotional model towards a behavioural model. Further, these changes appeared to be maintained. It is suggested that interventions such as those implemented in this study could make a positive contribution to the support of people with learning disabilities who display challenging behaviours. This thesis also highlighted that the majority of the current evidence-base regarding staff attributions, including this research, has significant limitations since the measures used to assess attributions have poor ecological and construct validity. These limitations impact on the generalisability of most attributional research within this field. It is considered crucial that future research develops outcome measures which overcome these limitations.
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