Young Teenagers’ Views Regarding Residential Care in Portugal and Spain: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Research on residential care has been well established in the literature. Nonetheless, research drawing from the actual experiences of adolescents is relatively scarce. A qualitative study was designed highlighting the voices of children, analysing their fostering experience, interpersonal relationships, their participation in daily decisions, and future aspirations. The sample included 33 early adolescents in residential care aged 12–14 in Portugal (n = 17) and Spain (n = 16). Results showed that there was agreement in terms of the importance given to education, their satisfaction with the material conditions of residential centre, and their dissatisfaction concerning matters of individuality, autonomy, participation, and socialization.

Greenlandic children placed in out-of-home care: The lack of involvement and participation in one’s own life

“…Most children expressed that it was very hard for them to be moved away from their parents, even though they were satisfied with the institution they lived in and knew that they could not live at home. These statements are aligned with other studies (see for example Montserrat et al, 2021;Queensland Family & Child Commission, 2018;Southwell & Fraser, 2010). Once society has taken over responsibility for a child, it should not be a matter of luck or coincidences whether the child ends up in a place where they can thrive, whether they're assigned a social worker who has time to talk to them, whether they lose contact with their family, whether they get better or not.…”

Evaluación de la acción socioeducativa con jóvenes de protección en programas de tránsito a la vida adulta

“…Los procesos de evaluación descritos han implicado fundamentalmente a profesionales, pero también de forma bastante generalizada, la participación del colectivo juvenil. Si bien son recientes los enfoques más activos y críticos en este sentido y los planes organizados para avanzar en el empoderamiento del colectivo (Montserrat et al, 2021;Pérez-García et al, 2019;Úcar et al 2017). Como sugieren Lynch et al (2021), Harder et al (2020 o Dixon & Ward (2018), además de generalizar ese enfoque participativo, habría que avanzar en la posibilidad de desarrollar un marco común de resultados, que incluya métodos evaluativos y de análisis, instrumentos de recopilación de datos y presentación de informes que ayuden al análisis comparativo con efectos de transferencia en la mejora de programas.…”