The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore perceptions and intervention experiences of
residential caretakers on the aggressive behavior of adults with intellectual and developmental
disabilities(I/DD). In more detail, this study focused on the following research questions: 1) How do
residential caretakers perceive on the aggressive behaviors towards oneself and others done by adults with
intellectual and/or developmental disabilities residing in an institutional setting?; 2) How do they intervene
or respond to such behavior?; and 3) How do they evaluated the effectiveness of their own interventions
and responses? To explore these research questions, qualitative data were collected from seven residential
caretakers by conducting in-depth interviews and field notes from participant observations. These data
were analyzed by using constant comparison method and Consensual Qualitative Research method to extract
main themes. Findings include, first of all, that study participants perceive clients’ aggressive behavior
as a type of communication method. With such common understanding of the behavior, study participants’
first response and intervention was to protect clients without sparing oneself. For secondary preventative
measures, participants were utilized various behavioral intervention procedures. Among many,
punishment-based procedure, extinction-based procedure, and reinforcement-based procedures were most
often mentioned. In addition, participants emphasized that these procedures must be carefully chosen based
on each individual client’s traits and characteristics. The main implication of this study was to set up
a system where information on evidence-based practice can be circulated, such as a discussion setting where
residential caretakers gather and share their practice wisdom and update on the most current and effective
behavioral intervention procedures for adults with I/DD.