TY - JOUR T1 - Emotional Responses of Staff to Assault in a Pediatric State Hospital JF - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online JO - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law SP - 360 LP - 368 VL - 36 IS - 3 AU - Eileen P. Ryan AU - Jeffrey Aaron AU - Mandi L. Burnette AU - Janet Warren AU - Roger Burket AU - Theresa Aaron Y1 - 2008/09/01 UR - http://jaapl.org/content/36/3/360.abstract N2 - In this study, we examined the emotional responses of staff to patient-on-staff assault at a state inpatient psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents. Staff (n = 93) completed self-report measures assessing general psychiatric functioning and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Staff assaulted by patients in the past six months (n = 59) were compared with those who had not been assaulted (n = 34). Direct-care staff were more likely to be assaulted than were other staff. Assaulted staff were more likely to report prior nonsexual assault by a stranger, higher anxiety, more somatic concerns, greater vulnerability and lack of control, and higher levels of impairment at work and were more likely to consider terminating employment than were non-assaulted staff. Our cross-sectional data suggest several differences in assaulted versus non-assaulted staff. Further studies are needed to determine whether differences in anxiety and traumatic events precede assaults or represent antecedent risk factors for being assaulted. ER -