Health professionals serving individuals with developmental disabilities: Association between leadership behaviors and practice

Healthy People 2020 highlights the promotion of health and well-being of all people including those with disabilities. The current study measured the association between transformational leadership behaviors and health promotion practices for Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) network professionals serving individuals with developmental disabilities. Transformational leadership is characterized by influential behaviors and attributes, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration, (Bass and Avolio, 2004). Using a web-based survey design to collect data, multivariate analysis was performed on the variables. Respondents included 222 professionals with a mean age of 47.9 years (e.g., nutritionists, occupational and physical therapists, speech pathologists, social workers, physicians/nurse practitioners, and nurses) from across the United States. Transformational leadership behaviors of AUCD professionals were associated with health promotion practices for cardiovascular fitness (p=.003). Transformational leadership behaviors presented a trend association with practices that promoted healthy weight (p=.07). In conclusion, the more transformational leadership attributes a clinician possessed, the greater their health promotion practice scores. The results of this study suggest that training of professionals treating individuals with disabilities should emphasize building characteristics congruent with transformational leadership. While Healthy People 2020 supports social and physical factors as determinants that influence the health of people with disabilities, leadership behaviors may prove to be a determinant of health that is not only associated with health promotion practices of specialty professionals but also contributes to the health status for individuals with developmental disabilities.