Group Climate in Residential Youth Care: Development and Validation of the Group Climate Instrument-Revised.

Group climate in residential youth care is considered to be essential for treatment of youth and young adults. Various instruments exist to measure quality of living group climate, but some are lengthy, use complicated wording, which make them difficult to fill out by youth and individuals with a mild intellectual disability. The present study describes the development and rationale for the Group Climate Instrument-Revised (GCI-R).

Psychometric analysis of the Group Climate Inventory-Revised in adults with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning in a secure residential facility.

Background: In secure residential facilities, group climate perceptions of clients with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning are systematically assessed for quality improvement. A valid and reliable measure may ensure that this process is consistent. The Group Climate Inventory-Revised (GCI-R) is a new measure to assess group climate perceptions.

Measurement invariance of the group climate inventory across adults with and without mild intellectual disability in secure residential facilities.

Background: The Group Climate Inventory (GCI) was tested for measurement invariance across 332 adults with and 225 adults without mild intellectual disabilities in Dutch forensic treatment, and for latent mean differences on its Support, Growth, Repression, and Atmosphere subscales.

Method: Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the configural, threshold, and loading and threshold invariance of the GCI across both groups, and to compare group latent means on each subscale.

Results: Measurement invariance was found across groups.

Relationships between dynamic risk factors for externalising problem behaviour and group climate in adults with mild intellectual disability in forensic treatment.

Background: Relationships between dynamic risk factors for externalising problem behaviour and group climate were investigated in 151 adult in-patients with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning in a Dutch secure residential facility.

Method: Regression analysis was used to predict total group climate score and Support, Growth, Repression, and Atmosphere subscales of the 'Group Climate Inventory'. Predictor variables were Coping Skills, Attitude towards current treatment, Hostility, and Criminogenic attitudes subscales of the 'Dynamic Risk Outcome Scales'.

A Meta-Analysis on Differences and Associations between Alliance Ratings in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.

Objective: The alliance in child and adolescent psychotherapy is widely recognized as an important factor in therapy. Studies on the alliance have increasingly focused on assessment of the alliance as a dyadic construct, measuring both client and therapist alliance ratings. However, cross-informant reports of the alliance in child psychotherapy have not yet been subjected to meta-analysis.