The Best Interest of the Child Self-Report Questionnaire (BIC-S): Results of a Participatory Development Process

Abstract

This paper provides insight into the participatory development process of a self-report questionnaire for adolescents: the Best Interest of the Child Self-report questionnaire (BIC-S). The BIC-S is based on the 'Best Interest of the Child' model. This model articulates, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 14 childcare conditions promoting the wellbeing and development of young people. The primary intention of the BIC-S is to give young people in care a voice regarding decisions in legal and care areas that impact their future. The development process of the BIC-S consisted of three main phases (exploration, consultation, pilot), containing a total of five different research stages. Adolescents placed in secure residential care, care professionals and university students were involved in the process. We developed a differentiated instrument that enables young people to express their own views on key aspects of their current and future living conditions. The digitized questionnaire is unique in its comprehensiveness, accessibility and attractiveness for young people, and generates an evaluative profile of care conditions from the adolescents themselves. The paper shows how a theoretically sound questionnaire can be constructed to conform to standards set by adolescents themselves. The BIC-S can serve as a productive vehicle for assessment and shared decision-making in the field of youth careboth at the micro level of individual treatment and at the meso level of evaluating group programmes. Further research into its use in practice is recommended.

The Best Interests of the Child from Different Cultural Perspectives: Factors Influencing Judgements of the Quality of Child-Rearing Environment and Construct Validity of the Best Interests of the Child-Questionnaire (BIC-Q) in Kosovo and Albania

“…The assessor did not see the family and child, but examined the quality of the child-rearing environment based on 1) the clarifications in the BIC-Qs provided by the Western-Balkan interviewers, without knowing the Western-Balkan judgements of the child-rearing conditions (hereafter referred to as ‘blind BIC-Q’); 2) factual information of the case, for instance the family composition, the return procedure, the Albanian language level of the child, the length of stay in the host country and since the return, and the family’s economic situation after return; 3) the child’s views on the child-rearing situation after return as provided in the self-report version of the BIC-Q ( Best Interests of the Child − Self-report (BIC-S); Ten Brummelaar et al 2014, 2017); 4) the child’s responses to social and emotional development items in the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman 1997); and 5) in 11 cases, pictures of the living environment of the family after their return. Similar to the Western-Balkan interviewers, the Western-European assessor provided clarifications for each child-rearing condition and explained the qualification of the rearing condition accordingly.…”

De visie van het Kinderrechtencomité op hoe het belang van het kind onderzocht en vastgesteld moet worden; een uitwerking voor zaken betreffende kindermishandeling en verwaarlozing

“…Met beide vragenlijsten kan per ontwikkelingsconditie worden bepaald welke artikelen uit het kinderrechtenverdrag geschonden worden als de kwaliteit van betreffende conditie onvoldoende is. (Kalverboer & Zijlstra, 2006;Ten Brummelaar, Kalverboer, Harder, Post, Zijlstra, & Knorth, 2014). Op basis van besluitvormingsregels die ontleend zijn aan de kernartikelen van het kinderrechtenverdrag wordt gekozen voor het alternatief dat het kind de beste kindertijd en de beste ontwikkelingskansen biedt.…”

De BIC-Q: een instrument om de kwaliteit van de opvoedingsomgeving van asielzoekerskinderen in kaart te brengen

“…Hiermee wordt ook gehoor gegeven aan de bepalingen in het IVRK, in het bijzonder artikel 12, waarin de noodzaak van het horen van de mening van kinderen wordt beklemtoond in al die situaties die hun belangen raken. Een pilotstudie naar toepassing van de BIC-S in het strafrechtelijk kader laat zien dat het instrument gebruik in verder onderzoek rechtvaardigt (Ten Brummelaar et al 2013). Toepassing in het vreemdelingenrecht is eveneens gewenst.…”