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For centuries, residential child and youth care systems worldwide have provided homes for vulnerable children and adolescents. The implementation of children's rights, especially the right of participation, is assessed as an important base for promoting the best interests of the child in an out-of-home care environment.
Featuring contributions from distinguished international authors, this volume offers an in-depth understanding of crucial participation processes and underlying power structures when involving young people in decision-making about their care and everyday life in different…
Abstract
Background
Disparities in decision-making are a recognized concern within child protection systems and imply that marginalized groups are being treated unequally compared to majoritized groups. Previous studies reported that both ethnicity and the gender of the parent that maltreated the child seem associated with an increased likelihood that child protection agencies provide services after an investigation or that children are placed out of their homes.
Objective
We investigated whether migration background and the gender of the parent who maltreated the child seem…
Abstract
Children's participation in legal proceedings affecting them personally has been gaining importance. So far, a primary research concern has been how children experience their participation in court proceedings. However, little is known about the child's voice itself: Are children able to clearly express their wishes, and if so, what do they say in child protection cases? In this study, we extracted information about children's statements from court file data of 220 child protection cases in Germany. We found 182 children were asked about their wishes. The majority of the…
Abstract
Children and adolescents from families with parental mental illness face an increased risk to experience abuse, neglect and maltreatment. The effects of imminent, intermittent or chronic distress on the development of the child and to differentiate these from neglect or maltreatment are not easily assignable in such families. Questionnaires and diagnostic instruments can be supportive tools for professionals in hospitals and private practices to identify and differentiate between burdens of children and families and potential endangerment. Different instruments are presented for…
Abstract
This paper focuses on the longitudinal examination of perceived reactive attachment disorder (RAD) symptoms and indiscriminate, insecure and pseudomature behavior in foster children, many of them having experienced maltreatment and neglect in the family of origin. A total of 84 foster children - aged between 2 and 7 years - and 146 biological children (comparison group) participated across three assessments, with approximately six months between each assessment. At the first measurement, foster children had been living about 18 months on average in the…
Assessment of attachment disorder symptoms in foster children: comparing diagnostic assessment tools
Abstract
Background
Standardized methods for assessing attachment disorders are scarce but needed for research and practice.
Methods
In the current study, several assessments for attachment disorder symptoms are used within a German sample of foster children after being exposed to neglect and maltreatment in their biological families. The symptoms were assessed with four established assessment methods based on both parents’ report and behavioral observation: The Rating for Infant Stranger Engagement, the Stranger at the Door, the Disturbances of Attachment Interview and the…
Abstract
Child protection matters from an important social and legal challenge, in which psychologists may be called upon to address a series of questions relevant for judicial decision-making. In an explorative manner, the current study investigates variables that influence psychological evaluators’ recommendations in child protection cases. The data is based on a quantitative content review of 103 psychological evaluation reports, conducted at an institute of forensic psychology in Germany. Using bivariate and logistic regression analyses, the following predictors were analyzed…
Summary Emergence of mental health problems in childhood can seriously affect further development of a man and thus hamper his adaptation to adult life. Children in residential institutions may be particularly vulnerable at risk of abnormal mental development, this includes so-called ‘children’s homes’. In the article we present an overview of the few studies carried out so far in the European residential institutions, including children’s homes, over the years 1940–2011 in the UK, Germany, Romania, and Poland. Firstly, we briefly describe a classic research carried out in the world in the…
Abstract
In this paper we examine the longer term outcomes of young people who experienced out of home care (OHC) as children, in Britain, Germany and Finland, countries characterised by different welfare regimes. While there is some evidence on immediate transitions after leaving care (up to age 21), there is less evidence on experiences around age 30, a phase of early adulthood. Drawing on existing longitudinal data for general population samples we focus on outcomes related to education, employment, family, health and receipt of welfare benefits for those who were ever in care and those…
This chapter appears in Child Maltreatment in Residential Care: History, Research, and Current Practice, a volume of research examining the institutionalization of children, child abuse and neglect in residential care, and interventions preventing and responding to violence against children living in out-of-home care settings around the world.
Abstract…