The working alliance between families and professionals within the context of child protection faces substantial challenges from a variety of factors. At the same time, it plays an important role in accomplishing positive outcomes. To gain insight into what might contribute when establishing positive alliances between parents - undergoing formal parenting assessments - and family coaches, we interviewed 22 parents about their experiences with a Dutch family residential treatment (FRT) program. The majority of parents considered the approaches used in the program effective. A central theme identified concerns the importance of a connection between parents and coaches. Characteristics of professionals that promote this sense of connection include humanity, respectfulness, availability and responsiveness, and good communication skills. A sense of connection can help parents develop a relationship of trust in which they eventually feel safe enough to share their stories, insecurities, questions, emotions, and thoughts, all of which play an important role in achieving positive change within the family. Especially, parents valued individual conversations with coaches with whom they felt connected. They identified several strategies applied by the FRT-professionals as having helped them to make changes in parenting. We organized the key themes into a conceptual model for establishing positive working alliances promoting change.

A systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis was performed (28 studies and 313 effect sizes) on the relation between residential group climate (i.e., safety, atmosphere, repression, support, growth, structure) and antisocial behavior, including aggression and criminal recidivism. A systematic search was conducted in PsychINFO, ERIC, and OVID Medline up to February 2023. Results showed a small but significant association ( r = .20) between residential group climate and antisocial behavior, equivalent to a 23% reduction of antisocial behavior in all clients receiving care in a residential facility with a therapeutic group climate. Moderator analyses showed that experienced safety was more strongly related to antisocial behavior ( r = .30) than the other dimensions of group climate (.17 < r < .20), while the effect size was somewhat larger for adults ( r = .24) than for youth ( r = .15). We conclude that residential facilities should consider safety as a priority and should involve clients in a positive process of change through the development of a therapeutic environment and delivery of evidence-based treatment, addressing their needs from the perspective of rehabilitation.

Long-term behavioral change is often difficult to achieve with adolescents staying in residential youth care. To achieve long-term behavioral change, we developed the Up2U training program to enhance these adolescents' intrinsic motivation for change. Based on motivational interviewing and solution-focused therapy, Up2U is designed for conducting one-on-one conversations with adolescents in residential youth care. The aim of this study is to evaluate the experiences that adolescents and care workers have had with Up2U. The results of semi-structured interviews show that, in general, the care workers were satisfied with Up2U. They identified the clarity, conciseness, and sample questions as positive elements of Up2U. In contrast, the care workers regarded the extensiveness and the implementation of Up2U as less positive. The adolescents also seemed to be positive about the use of Up2U during one-on-one conversations. In conclusion, although both care workers and adolescents were generally satisfied, there is still room for improvement.

Abstract This chapter notes the characteristics, trends, and evidence of the child protection system in the Netherlands. It also expounds on the identification and processing of reports on child maltreatment such as physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect. The basic principles of child protection and youth care are prevention, de-medicalization and normalization, parenting skills improvement, the safety of the child-rearing environment, and family group plans. Prevention and early intervention through parenting support, which is offered on a municipal level, have higher priority to deterring more expensive and specialized care. However, the research found that solutions for psychosocial and maltreatment issues for children and families are difficult to achieve.

Cet article présente les conclusions issues d’une étude longitudinale néerlandaise portant sur la correspondance culturelle, les facteurs liés à l’accueil et ceux liés à l’enfant qui permettent de déterminer la réussite du placement en famille d’accueil d’enfants réfugiés non accompagnés. Grâce à plusieurs questionnaires, nous avons évalué ce placement du point de vue des enfants (39), de leurs parents d’accueil (37) et de leurs « tuteurs » (37) (un travailleur social). La qualité de la relation entre l’enfant et le ou les parents d’accueil a montré une correspondance presque biunivoque avec la « réussite du placement ». De plus, pour les enfants, la similitude culturelle avec les parents d’accueil et le comportement pro-social revêtent une grande importance. Pour les parents d’accueil et les tuteurs, en revanche, cette similitude culturelle est moins fortement liée à la réussite du placement que le comportement d’extériorisation des enfants ou la qualité de l’environnement de soins. Les implications pour la recherche et la pratique seront développées en fin d’article.

Abstract This chapter describes residential care in the Netherlands, a country ranking highest on children’s mental well-being, physical health, and academic and social skills. Residential care represents approximately 50% of all children in out-of-home care. Recent developments include the development of small-scale residential settings, including family-oriented residential care and shared family care. A strong emphasis on residential care research in several leading universities and a longstanding commitment to social pedagogy are assets to the residential care sector. The chapter concludes with the matrix used throughout the book, including the current policy context, key trends and initiatives, characteristics of children and youth served, preparation of residential care personnel, promising programmatic innovations, and present strengths and challenges.

(1) Background: 'Images of Self' (IOS) is a recently developed and evaluated art therapy program of 15 sessions to reduce difficulties in 'sense of self', 'emotion regulation', 'flexibility', and 'social behavior' of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In this paper, it is explored whether change in the child's behaviors corresponds to the therapist's actions during IOS and 15 weeks later. (2) Method: In a repeated case study design, twelve children and seven therapists participated. Art therapists monitored their own and the children's behavior by applying two observation instruments: the OAT (Observation of a child with autism in Art Therapy) and EAT (Evaluation of Art Therapist's behavior when working with a child with autism). Child behaviors during art making were-individually and as a group-compared with therapist's actions at three moments during the program. (3) Results: Ten of twelve children showed a substantial or moderate positive behavior change considering all OAT subscales at the end of the program and 15 weeks after treatment. Improvement of 'social behavior' stood out. Halfway treatment art therapists most prominently showed support of 'emotion regulation', 'flexibility', and 'social behavior'. Clear one-on-one relationships between changes in children's behavior and actions of therapists could not be identified. (4) Conclusion: The study provides new insights in the AT treatment process by monitoring children's and therapists' behavior. The art making itself and the art therapy triangle (child, art making, therapist) offer opportunities to improve verbal and nonverbal communication skills of the child.

Previous research has shown that social climate (SC) is important for the daily life of youths living in therapeutic residential youth care (TRC). However, little is known on how SC can promote a positive quality of life (QoL) for the heterogeneous TRC population. This study, therefore, investigates how TRC and youth characteristics are associated with SC and QoL. We employed a combination of person-centered and variable-centered approaches in a cross-sectional design using a sample of 400 Norwegian youths. We used previously established TRC and youth classes in a structural equation model, where these classes were regressed on latent SC and QoL. Both direct and indirect effects were analyzed. All youth classes were associated with SC and QoL, such that youth with family problems, incidental problems, and the migrant background class scored higher on SC and QoL compared to the severe problems class. In addition, SC mediated the association of the incidental problems and migrant background classes on QoL. TRC staff should acknowledge that a positive SC can strengthen the QoL of youths with severe problems. Future research should longitudinally investigate these associations to establish long-term effects on QoL during stay in TRC. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Background In residential youth care, group care workers and teachers often serve as a mentor for individual adolescents. Although favorable mentoring relationships are associated with positive adolescent outcomes, few studies examined the role of mentoring in residential youth care. Objective The present study aims to assess adolescents’, care workers’ and teachers’ mentoring relationship needs in terms of their one-on-one conversations during residential care. Methods We conducted structured interviews with eleven adolescents, ten group care workers and two teachers and content analysis to assess the data Results All respondents are rather satisfied with their conversations, which are often concerned with how the adolescent is doing. Adolescents mostly consider their family and home-situation as difficult topics, while care workers mostly consider sexuality as a difficult topic to talk about. Although ‘improvement’ with the youth is often the aim, most adolescents report that they do not (know if they) show changes because of these conversations. Moreover, only one of the twelve professionals thinks that it is his core task to achieve behavior change with the adolescents. According to the professionals, conversations often aim at building a good relationship, coaching, determining treatment goals, and gaining insight into the adolescent. Adolescents prefer a mentor who is calm, has respect, listens, and is reluctant in giving advice. Most professionals do not use a specific method and doubt whether they want to have conversations according to a manual or support tool. Conclusions Despite being rather satisfied, adolescents and professionals indicate several points for improvement of one-on-one conversations.

Behavioral change in adolescents is often an important aim of residential youth care, but difficult to achieve. Care workers can increase the intrinsic motivation of adolescents to change their behavior by applying Motivational Interviewing (MI). The aim of this study is to investigate whether there is a difference in workers' performance vis-à-vis adolescents before and after an MI training course. To measure this difference, we coded transcripts of audio recordings of one-on-one conversations between adolescents and workers, using the MITI 4.2.1 and MISC 2.5. We compared the transcripts made before the MI training course with the transcripts made after the training course. The results show that the 13 workers made significantly more use of MI adherent behaviors after the training course. Moreover, a trend toward using fewer MI non-adherent behaviors after the training was observed. The results suggest that workers are able to evoke more 'change talk' with adolescents after a training course. In conclusion, after attending a training course, workers are able to engage in conversations that are more in line with the MI-spirit. However, these are still not "real" MI conversations yet. We recommend to train workers more intensively in how to apply MI.

This study examined the stability (or instability) of 29 foster placements of unaccompanied refugee children, including how stability was related, inter alia, to the cultural matching of children and caregivers from the perspectives of the children, foster caregivers, and guardians over a one-year period. Several dimensions of stability were assessed, such as placement stability (continuing versus disrupted placements at T1; the second measurement), stability in placement success, and stability in child and fostering factors (i.e., placement development from the baseline [T0] to T1). From the perspectives of the children, caregivers, and guardians, most placements in which children stayed in the same foster family over time remained relatively stable in terms of child and fostering factors and placement success. According to the caregivers, however, the children’s social-emotional problems showed a significant increase over time. The children’s and caregivers’ appreciation of their cultural similarity tended to fluctuate over time. Notably, the children’s appreciation of cultural similarity in terms of religion decreased significantly. Most of the children in disrupted placements showed improved or stable results for child factors at T1. Moreover, with reference to the findings measured at T0, we observed differences between children who were still living with the same foster families and those who were living elsewhere at T1. From the perspectives of the foster caregivers and guardians, the former fared better than the latter, as indicated by the baseline measurements.

This study examined multi-informant discrepancies (between child, carer, and guardian perspectives) regarding placement success of 39 foster placements, as well as possible factors associated with these discrepancies. We also examined whether these discrepancies in placement success at baseline measurement (T0) are related to placement breakdown at second measurement (T1). The results showed that when placements are rated with a high average placement success score (looking at child-carer and child-guardian dyads), the child and carer, as well as the child and guardian generally agree on the success of the foster placement, showing low discrepancy. In contrast, placements with a low average score on placement success show large discrepancies between the perspectives, which may also lead to breakdown. Results of the multilevel analyses showed that discrepancies regarding placement success were mainly associated with differences in perspectives regarding fostering factors (i.e., quality of the caregiving environment, child-carer and child-guardian relationship) and child factors (i.e., conduct problems, emotional problems). The results indicate that children and their carers or guardians disagree more on the success of the placement if they disagree on the quality of the caregiving environment, the child's conduct and emotional problems, and the quality of the child-carer and child-guardian relationship. The outcomes of our study might be especially helpful for guardians in shaping their guidance practices.

Pedagogisch medewerkers spelen een belangrijke rol in de te behalen resultaten in de residentiele jeugdhulp. Desondanks zijn er weinig interventies die deze medewerkers ondersteunen in hun professionele vaardigheden. Om hen te ondersteunen in het verder ontwikkelen van vaardigheden omtrent het opbouwen van goede samenwerkingsrelaties met jongeren en het versterken van de intrinsieke motivatie voor gedragsverandering bij jongeren hebben wij het trainingsprogramma Up2U ontwikkeld. Hoewel het gebruik van Up2U in de praktijk best nog een uitdaging is, zijn de eerste resultaten positief. Pedagogische medewerkers die Up2U in de praktijk hebben uitgeprobeerd, geven aan dat het om een duidelijk trainingsprogramma gaat dat een prima hulpmiddel oplevert voor het voeren van goede een-op-een gesprekken met jongeren. Ook uit de observaties van deze gesprekken komt naar voren dat het met behulp van Up2U voor pedagogisch medewerkers mogelijk is om een gesprek te voeren dat meer dan gebruikelijk op de individuele jongere gericht is.

Vulnerable children's experiences after (forced) return are understudied. Compared with the situation of adults, child-specific safeguards are necessary for their reintegration. The study aims to gain insight into the reintegration and support experiences of vulnerable returnee children after a short and medium term of return in Kosovo. This study has a qualitative design and a thematic analysis was conducted. Thirteen children in nine families, who were part of an earlier support project, were interviewed three years later. All families still faced economic or housing problems after a longer period of return. Some families faced some more stability in living conditions. About half of the children had multiple reintegration-related difficulties (i.e., health problems, no connection with Kosovo, safety issues, poor well-being of parents, school drop-out, living isolated, difficult contacts with peers or society). The small-scale support that the children had received was not sufficient to alleviate their problems. A children's rights view could help identify the necessary support and care for returnee children, to enhance their sustainable reintegration and quality of life.

Vulnerable children’s experiences after (forced) return are understudied. Compared with the situation of adults, child-specific safeguards are necessary for their reintegration. The study aims to gain insight into the reintegration and support experiences of vulnerable returnee children after a short and medium term of return in Kosovo. It consists of descriptive case studies of the reintegration experiences of 13 children in nine families, who were part of an earlier support project and were interviewed three years later. All families still faced economic or housing problems after longer period of return. Some families faced some more stability in living conditions. About half of the children had multiple reintegration-related difficulties (i.e., health problems, no connection with Kosovo, safety issues, poor well-being of parents, school drop-out, living isolated, difficult contacts with peers or society). The small-scale support that the children had received was not sufficient to alleviate their problems. A children\u0027s rights view could help identify the necessary support and care for returnee children, to enhance their sustainable reintegration and quality of life.

The aim of this chapter is to clarify how decision-making processes within the context of child welfare and child protection could be improved by decision-making theories (i.e., Decision-Making Ecology [DME] and decisional conflict model), with specific interest in methods intended to support practitioners based on these theories, in particular methods of structured decision-making and actuarial methods. Existing studies indicate that structured decision-making methods have a limited effect on the decision-making process, as well as on the reliability and validity of the judgments and choices made by professionals in cases of suspected child abuse and neglect. Actuarial methods may be more precise in making valid judgments but may ignore factors relevant to decisions concerning treatment and intervention. The DME framework reveals that other factors—in addition to rationally weighing information and arguing—influence the decision-making process and outcomes. Especially the influence of decision-maker factors seems to be ignored in structured decision-making methods. Although systematic methods and instruments do have some value, several additional options are available that take decision-maker factors more into account. This chapter discusses the potentials of critical thinking, team decision-making, systematic feedback, and shared decision-making.

Research shows that highly supportive living arrangements, such as foster care, can provide an environment that meets the needs of unaccompanied children (i.e. fewer internalizing problems, higher quality of the child-rearing environment). However, there is limited research into the experiences of these children in (cultural) foster care. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of former unaccompanied refugee children and unaccompanied refugee children, their carers and social workers with regard to the foster placement. This cross-sectional qualitative study combined semi-structured interviews with questionnaires. In general, participants were satisfied with the foster placement. However, some children also reported negative experiences during their foster placement or felt somewhat uncomfortable, but they still rated the placement as successful. Children and carers valued the cultural similarity of the foster placement. Former unaccompanied children appreciated cultural similarity less. Overall, participants valued similarity of language the most. Several children did not feel at home in their foster placement. In most foster families, the caregiving environment offered to children seemed adequate.