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Adolescents in secure residential care mostly suffer from serious behavioural problems, often accompanied by trauma and adverse family circumstances. This paper presents findings of a comparison of behavioural problems and risk factors of 255 boys and girls (aged 12 to 18 years) in secure residential care in the Netherlands and their association with behavioural problems. A cross‐sectional design and standardized questionnaires were used to measure behavioural problems and individual and familial risk factors. By using independent‐sample t tests, the severity of these factors in boys and girls was compared, and by using structural equation modelling (SEM), associations between these factors and behavioural problems were investigated. The findings of the study show that post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, maladaptive emotion regulation, impaired perceived competence and internalizing behavioural problems were more severe in girls than in boys. Boys experienced more severe externalizing behavioural problems and more family problems than girls. Maladaptive emotion regulation, PTSD symptoms, perceived competence and parenting problems were related to behavioural problems. The results indicate that treatment for girls should address PTSD symptoms, perceived competence and maladaptive emotion regulation and that extra attention for family problems in the treatment of boys is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper considers therapeutic approaches to residential care with specific attention to the question of family involvement. It builds on a body of literature indicating the potential of residential care as a positive intervention for young people, and examines the contention that - even when family problems contribute to a young person's accommodation in residential care - family involvement could improve long-term outcomes. The literature reviewed indicates that family involvement is indeed important. Mixed research findings reflect the diversity of approaches to family-centred practice, but there is evidence of benefits in relation to a range of child outcomes. However, the literature also shows that family-centred residential care is not easy to achieve. More than parent-child contact, it entails genuine involvement of parents, in decision-making and in children's daily lives. Professionals - including social workers and residential care workers - must not only be concerned with the care and development of the child, but also with the role of the parent in their child's development, understood within an ecological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]