Evaluating the effectiveness of intensive family preservation services: A multi-level meta-analysis.

Background: Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) are an important part of child welfare. They are short-term, in-home treatment programs aimed at preventing imminent out-of-home placements, however, today, their overall effectiveness remains unclear.

Objective: This study aims to conduct a comprehensive review of IFPS effectiveness, evaluate a wide range of outcomes, and analyze the impact of various factors on its success.

The current evidence of solution-focused brief therapy: A meta-analysis of psychosocial outcomes and moderating factors.

Purpose: Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) focuses on the strengths and resources of clients, and is assumed to achieve positive results on various psychosocial outcomes. This meta-analysis is an extension of previous meta-analyses on SFBT, and examines if the effectiveness of SFBT is influenced by participant, intervention, study and publication characteristics.

Methods: Experimental and quasi-experimental studies were included.

Measuring empathy in youth and young adults with mild intellectual disabilities or borderline intelligence in residential care - The validation of an adapted basic empathy scale: The BES-MID.

Youths with mild intellectual disability (MID) are assumed to show impaired cognitive and affective empathy. However, the use of linguistic and conceptual complex empathy measures set limits to the valid and reliable assessment of empathy in youth with MID or borderline intelligence (BI). The objective of the present study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the adapted BES-MID as an instrument for assessing cognitive and affective empathy in youth and young adults (12-24years) with MID/BI.

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).

Effectiveness of a multidisciplinary treatment with youth-initiated mentoring for youths with mental health needs from multi-problem families: a quasi-experimental study.

Background: Children from multi-problem families have an increased risk for experiencing mental health problems. These families face problems in several domains that are often found to be chronic and intergenerational. Yet, the effects of mental health care for youths from multi-problem families are small at best, urging research on new treatment programs.