Staff reports of setting events associated with challenging behavior

This study sought to identify the setting events reported by care staff as more and less likely to be associated with the challenging behaviors of people with intellectual disabilities. Sixty-five staff working with 22 individuals were interviewed using an inventory of putative setting events. Findings were collated to allow identification of those events reported to be associated with increased and decreased likelihood of challenging behavior. Some events were reported as strongly associated with the occurrence of challenging behavior, some as strongly associated with its absence, some as largely "inert," and many as idiosyncratically associated with occurrence, absence, or inertness. Different categories of setting events contributed different relative amounts to reported variation in challenging behavior. The use of the inventory described here, or modified versions, may be a useful way of identifying relationships between setting events and challenging behaviors, which suggest ways in which routine service provision might be modified to help prevent challenging behavior.