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Community Residential Environments For Mentally Retarded Adults: Staff Attitudes And Practices Regarding Resident Dependence And Independence, Diane Conway

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A study was conducted to investigate staff attitudes and everyday behaviors and their relationship to the independence of mentally retarded adults in four community residences. Questionnaires administered to 15 front-line staff persons measured their perceptions of the amount of external control (situations in which staff assume control over residents’ environments), personal control (situations in which staff encourage of allow residents to exert control over their own environments), and shared control (situations in which staff encourage shared responsibility between staff and residents in exerting control over the environment). The questionnaires tapped staff perceptions of the degree to which each of these …