PhD defence R.V. (Raymond) Gutterswijk

Summary:

Secure residential youth care (SRC) offers help to children and adolescents with behavioral problems for whom less intensive help proved to be insufficient (Eltink et al., 2017; Martin et al., 2017). Although research has shown that SRC can lead to a decrease in behavioral problems (De Swart et al., 2012; Strijbosch et al., 2015), this form of care has also received criticism (James, 2017; Souverein et al., 2013; Van IJzendoorn et al. al., 2020; Weis et al., 2005). For some children and adolescents, SRC seems to be counterproductive and may even worsen behavior problems through deviancy training or negative influence by peers (Souverein et al., 2013; Weis et al., 2005). Another criticism concerns the autonomy restriction of adolescents and the fact that young people are placed out of their home, away from their family and network, into a residential setting (James, 2017; Ryan & Deci, 2017). However, many youth care institutions appear to be highly motivated to improve the help offered in the SRC. For example, help is increasingly offered in collaboration with parents and the social network. Moreover, SRC institutions try to treat the youth in an increasingly less restrictive setting and an attempt is made to develop tailor made interventions. Also, institutions aim to develop alternative forms of care for this target group (e.g., intensive treatment foster care, small-scale residential living groups, and short-term placements in residential care in combination with family interventions). Gender-specific care is an attempt to customize treatment in youth care institutions to meet the needs and risks of children and adolescents. This is in line with the assumption that boys and girls have different needs and risks when they enter SRC (Handwerk et al., 2006; Nijhof, 2011; Sonderman et al., 2015; Weis et al., 2005). This dissertation attempts to investigate the effectiveness of possible alternative interventions to SRC, to clarify the treatment needs of boys and girls and to demonstrate the possible added value of gender-specific help, in order to find possible solutions to make the help to this vulnerable target group more suitable and effective.