Objetive: The aim of this study was to conduct an exhaustive synthesis to determine which instruments and variables are most appropriate to evaluate foster care programs (foster, kinship, and professional families). This evaluation includes the children, their foster families, their families of origin, professionals, and foster care technicians.
Method: The systematic review included randomized, quasi-randomized, longitudinal, and control group studies aimed at evaluating foster care interventions.
Several studies have evidenced that children in out-of-home care (OOHC), including foster family care and residential care, reveal high levels of mental health disorders (ranging from 40% to 88%). This study examines the outcomes in mental health reported by key residential workers in a group of children and youth ( = 492) between 8-17 years old who were in residential child care (RCC) in Spain. The research also aims to explore the relationship between mental health outcomes and the provision of mental health services (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
June 2021
Background: The aim of this study was to develop and validate the PLANEA Independent Life Skills Scale, an instrument created according to the Planea Program framework for training independent living skills in young people in residential care.
Method: A sample of 1,098 young people took part, 60% were women and 37% were living in residential child care, with a mean age of 17.69 years ( SD = 2.
Background: Adolescents in Residential Child Care (RCC) report high levels of victimization. This has been linked to mental health problems and a higher risk of substance use and substance use problems. The present study aimed to evaluate the specific impact of different forms of victimization on alcohol and cannabis use problems among adolescents in RCC, attending to sex differences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Residential child care is a very complex measure and has been the subject of heated debate in many countries. However, there is a paucity of studies that examine quality assessments of these services, much less that have asked the children and young people receiving those services about their own evaluations.
Method: This study interviewed 209 young people between 11 and 20 years of age, in 21 residential facilities, about their degree of satisfaction with the care they receive.
A large proportion of the children and young people in residential child care in Spain are there as a consequence of abuse and neglect in their birth families. Research has shown that these types of adverse circumstances in childhood are risk factors for emotional and behavioral problems, as well as difficulties in adapting to different contexts. School achievement is related to this and represents one of the most affected areas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTherapeutic Residential Care for Children and Youth: A Consensus Statement of the International Work Group on Therapeutic Residential Care. In many developed countries around the world residential care interventions for children and adolescents have come under increasing scrutiny. Against this background an international summit was organised in England (spring 2016) with experts from 13 countries to reflect on therapeutic residential care (TRC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The voice of foster families is a valuable tool in the development and improvement of foster family services. Regularly evaluating the satisfaction of foster carers can facilitate the early identification of a range of problems that might pose a risk to the placement.
Method: This article reports the experience of 200 Spanish foster families (kinship and non-kinship) with foster services in relation to motivation for becoming foster carers, sources of stress and reward, satisfaction with the services and needs.
Child welfare professionals regularly make crucial decisions that have a significant impact on children and their families. The present study presents the Judgments and Decision Processes in Context model (JUDPIC) and uses it to examine the relationships between three independent domains: case characteristic (mother's wish with regard to removal), practitioner characteristic (child welfare attitudes), and protective system context (four countries: Israel, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Spain); and three dependent factors: substantiation of maltreatment, risk assessment, and intervention recommendation. The sample consisted of 828 practitioners from four countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBreakdown of foster care has been defined as the situation in which one of the involved parties terminates the intervention before having achieved the goals established for the case plan. This work presents a study carried out with a Spanish sample of 318 closed cases of children who were placed in foster homes and kinship care. The data were collected through the exhaustive review of the child protection and foster placement files, complemented with interviews of the welfare workers in charge of each case.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study aims to assess the impact of the Spanish young offenders law (LO/2000). Recidivism and its associated risk factors were used as indicators of impact. Data were collected from young offenders' reports opened after 2001 and closed before 2005.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study is to identify the variables related to stress and burnout syndrome among child residential care workers, as well as the most problematic areas of their work. A random sample of 257 professionals working in the Residential Child Care sector in Spain was studied by means of the TBQ questionnaire (Teachers' Burnout Questionnaire), adapted to child care workers. The results enabled us to detect the principal sources of job dissatisfaction, as well as revealing a greater incidence of stress than of burnout.
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