Rose John L, Cleary Adam
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK.
J Intellect Dev Disabil. 2007 Jun;32(2):153-61. doi: 10.1080/13668250701351816.
Past research has determined that fear of violence is often "irrational" in relation to the actual level of risk presented. This has been found to exacerbate the negative effects of exposure to work-related violence.
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.
过去的研究已经确定，与实际存在的风险水平相比，对暴力的恐惧往往是“非理性的”。这已被发现会加剧接触工作场所暴力的负面影响。
本研究调查与接触具有挑战性的行为相关的受攻击恐惧。测试了受攻击恐惧的社会心理模型在多大程度上可以推广到为智障人士提供服务的护理人员，并评估了所使用工具的有效性。
共有87名护理人员参与了一项基于问卷调查的研究，该研究在两个为智障人士提供住宿服务的不同组织中进行。在一项服务中，工作人员接触具有挑战性的行为的程度较高，许多客户有犯罪记录，而在另一项服务中，工作人员接触具有挑战性的行为的程度较低。
根据一项测量，接触高水平具有挑战性的行为的护理人员对工作场所暴力更为恐惧。然而，在第二项测量中，两组之间没有发现差异。回归分析表明，在解释不安全感方面，对受攻击恐惧模型的维度的可推广性有一定支持。
本研究表明，在试图理解护理人员对具有挑战性的行为的反应时，受攻击恐惧可能是一个重要因素。然而结果的不确定性引发了对现有评估这种恐惧的方法的有效性的质疑。
