Group work in progress Exploring ways to build a positive group climate in residential care for 4-15 year old children

There is an ongoing debate about the appropriateness of residential care, especially when it concerns (young) children. However, it is still an important part of the care system, as thousands of children are being placed in institutions every year. In the contemporary search for what constitutes qualitatively good residential youth care, renewed attention has grown for the basic circumstances in which the general upbringing of children takes place, apart from specific treatment interventions. There is growing empirical evidence showing that a therapeutic group climate contributes to positive outcomes. However, group climate research has mostly focused on the adolescent age group so far. The main aim of this dissertation is to enhance knowledge on ways to build a positive group climate in residential care for 4-15 year old children. A meta-analytic study statistically integrates the current state of knowledge on outcomes of institutional care for children. This is followed by two studies describing the development and validation of group climate instruments (for age groups 8-15 and 4-8). Next, associations are examined between children’s ratings of group climate and therapeutic alliance with their primary group worker. The final study investigates how monitoring instruments can be part of an improvement process in residential care facilities. Overall, this dissertation adds to the existing knowledge on the effectiveness of residential care for children, it provides practical tools, and it may contribute to a youth care system in which every child who (temporarily) cannot live safely in the home situation receives the best possible care.