According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, those children and youth that are “temporarily or permanently deprived of their family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that... [ view full abstract ]
According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, those children and youth that are “temporarily or permanently deprived of their family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State” (article 20). The "special treatment" in the most direct sense provide care-givers in residential care. How that special treatment is provided, is it matched with needs of children and youth is very important question.
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine differences in relationship of care-giver interventions and behaviour problems of youth when self-assessment and caregiver assessment of problems is taken into account.
The research was conducted with convenience sample of youth (age 14 – 21) placed in 14 children's homes in Croatia (N=253). Regarding gender, 55.7% of them were female and 44.3% male.
In order to obtain data, following instruments were used: 1. Sociodemographic questionnaire; 2.Youth - Self Report (YSR, Achenbach, 1991), 3. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL, Achenbach, 1991), 4. Group Care Worker Intervention Checklist (Bastiaanssen et al., 2012).
Methods of descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were used. The results of applied t-test indicate statistically significant differences in the assessment and self-assessment of youth internalising and externalising behavioural problems. Namely, youth perceive that they are dealing with more internalising and externalising behaviour problems then care-givers do assess. On the other hand, correlation analysis suggests stronger association between care –givers interventions and youth behavioural problems when problems are assessed by caregivers. Namely, caregivers assessment of youth internalising behavioural problems is positively correlated with all three measured care-givers intervention (controlling, warmth/support, autonomy granting). None of interventions was significantly correlated with self-assessed internalising problems.
Similar results are found when externalising behavioural problems are taken into account. There is a positive correlation between the care-giver assessment of externalizing problems and controlling (.54) and warmth/support (.25). Only significant correlation between care-givers intervention (controlling) and self-assessed youth behavioural problems was found when analysing externalising problems. However, this connection was of law values (.15).
These data show a concerning fact that youth assess to have more internalising and externalising behavioural problems then their caregiver perceive, and that those problems are not addressed with appropriate interventions. In order word, on the basses of these results it is not possible to confirm that those children are receiving ‘special treatment’, matched with their intervention needs and Convention principles.
The results indicate the importance of taking into account youth perspective on their behaviour when planning and implementing interventions.
Key words: care-givers interventions, behavioural problems, youth, residential care
