A B S T RA C TThe ever-growing number of out-of-home children in Italy over the last decade has urged an assessment of the available care services. Although foster care is spreading rapidly, many young people are still housed in residential facilities. Reflection on residential care quality has intensified at both a national and an international level. This paper presents the results of a study on residential care facilities for children and young people in the region of Northern Italy (Lombardy). Four dimensions of 'quality' are considered: efficiency, effectiveness, participation in planning and intervention, and empowerment of children and their family relationships. The combined effects of these dimensions are defined as 'relational quality'. The results show that residential care facilities are generally good, while Social Services resources often appear inadequate for interventions aimed at birth families (efficiency). The well-being of children in residential care facilities is high, even if they tend to move from one facility to another, rarely returning to their birth family (effectiveness). The involvement of children and their families at different stages of the care path is limited (participative approach). Finally, the most critical element is the failure to properly involve birth families (empowerment).bs_bs_banner

Abstract. At a time of renewed interest in the family

No abstract

In the last few decades the transition to adulthood has been taking longer to complete, especially in the Western world. As Italy is one of the first countries affected by this phenomenon, the results of 30 years of research in that area are now available. The aim of this contribution is to present the Italian situation through an intergenerational approach, to identify the implications of the delayed assumption of adult roles. Both sociological and psychological findings are thus analysed to provide a richly articulated picture of the Italian phenomenon. Several findings identify the main characteristics of the transition in Italy as the joint effect of prolonged co-residence in the parental home and delayed marriage. The central role played by the family of origin highlights the advantage of the intergenerational approach adopted in the study. The family’s crucial role could, in fact, be explained by the absence of adequate welfare policies (hence the compensating support of family relationships), as well as the perception of cultural intergenerational obligations. However, only a generative family and a generative society, (i.e., a family and society giving birth to, caring for, and letting go of, the younger generation) could provide a generative context in which young adults could find their own adult roles, within both family (by creating a new family) and society (being recognised as adults who contribute to social development).

No abstract