Going in strong': Confrontive coping by staff1

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Abstract
Violence is an important source of stress for staff working in forensic psychiatric settings and strategies adopted for coping with this stress may influence staff behaviour towards patients. To examine this possibility, 24 staff in a psychiatric hospital were interviewed twice, first 3 days and then 2 weeks after being physically assaulted by a patient. Measures of anxiety and coping were taken at each interview. Escape/avoidance and confrontive coping were used by a third or more of subjects and both strategies may be associated with behaviours which have been implicated in the causation of aggression. Confronrive coping was also associated with an increase in anxiety in the short term.