Staff Support, Staff Stress and Job Satisfaction in Working with People with Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviours

In the context of a staff development programme, the relationships between work‐related stress, staff support and job satisfaction were explored among staff groups in two residential assessment and treatment facilities for people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour. Although overall support was relatively high for both formal and informal supports, only the informal supports from colleagues were negatively correlated with ratings of work‐related stress. Work‐related stress and job satisfaction were shown to be independent factors, and thus levels of stress could not be inferred from overall ratings of job satisfaction, or vice versa. The study identified a potentially vulnerable group of staff who reported relatively high job satisfaction but also some degree of stress.