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Little empirical data exist to guide ethical decisions when conducting research with vulnerable populations. The current study assesses a protocol designed to mitigate risks in a population-based cohort of 246 individuals placed in care institutions as infants in a non-selective 60-year follow-up. In total, 116 (47%) individuals chose to participate, of whom 53 (55%) reported positive effects of participation such as the opportunity to fill some gaps in their life stories, to better deal with their past, and to understand previous family dynamics. Only three individuals (2.5%) explicitly reported negative short-term consequences such as feeling upset as a result of thinking about stressful times, but they nonetheless rated the usefulness of the study as high. For six participants (5%), psychological counseling sessions were initiated as a support measure. Our findings suggest that risk of harm can be managed with a rigorous ethics protocol when conducting research with a vulnerable cohort and therefore enable the voices of survivors to be heard. A step wise approach in which increasing amounts of information were presented at each step, clearly operationalized passive decline, and direct and consistent contact with highly trained staff were considered key to mitigating distress. Keywords: deprivation; ethics; institutionalization; long-term follow-up; vulnerable cohort

Special Issue : Young People's Transitions from Care to Adulthood : Exploring Historical Narratives, Research on institutional care and its long‐term effect on life trajectories provides crucial and sometimes unexpected insights. In a qualitative study in Switzerland, we have conducted 37 narrative interviews with people who experienced residential care between 1950 and 1990. The analysis was based on a reconstructive life course perspective and grounded theory. The findings show a complex interplay of residential care context (here: narratives from expert discourses) and intersubjective experiences during and after care. Most interviewees learned from their experiences to be sceptical of social relationships and of all kinds of state interventions—even decades after having left. A few were able to take charge of their lives and steer them in an individually successful direction. In these cases too, results point to fragile concepts of success. Thus, critical questions about residential care in these decades remain. We suggest that rather than abolish residential care facilities, we need to gather more evidence about the factors that contribute to high‐quality out‐of‐home‐placements. As professional settings, they can enable young people individually. They need to avoid responding to children as ‘objects of care’, by neglecting all subjective dimensions and reproducing a pattern of powerlessness with a strong focus on formal, measurable goals.

Eine Studie identifiziert dringenden Handlungsbedarf für unbegleitete minderjährige Asylsuchende in Bundesasylzentren im Spannungsfeld zwischen dem Kindeswohl und dem Asylwesen.

Die Ergebnisse der Evaluation zeigen, dass im Rahmen des UMA Pilotprojektes – dank den neuen Vorgaben, den angepassten Ressourcen und dem hohen Engagement der Fachpersonen vor Ort – wichtige Verbesserungen bei der Unterbringung und Betreuung von unbegleiteten minderjährigen Asylsuchenden erzielt werden konnten. Gleichzeitig machen die Befunde aber auch deutlich, dass die für das Pilotprojekt ausgearbeiteten Standards und die gesprochenen Ressourcen nicht ausreichen, um eine kindes- und altersgerechte Unterbringung und Betreuung in den Zentren des Bundes sicherzustellen und damit der Verantwortung des Staates bei der Sicherung des Kindeswohls gerecht zu werden. Insbesondere fehlt es an einer Spezifizierung des Auftrags, an klaren Zuständigkeitsbereichen, an (Schutz-)Konzepten und Standards, an ausreichend personellen und räumlichen Ressourcen und an einer Klärung wichtiger Schnittstellen, um auch in einem primär von Verwaltungslogik strukturierten Kontext kindes- und altersgerechte Lebensbedingungen zu schaffen und individuelle Bedarfs- und Gefährdungslagen systematisch erkennen und adäquat darauf reagieren zu können. Schliesslich fällt auf, dass die Anbindung an Angebote der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe mangelhaft ausgestaltet ist und kein unabhängiges Kontrollorgan existiert, das Kindes- und Altersgerechtigkeit langfristig überprüfen könnte.

With the aim of gathering new knowledge about the complex processes that lead to the breakdown of foster care placements, an international research team explored the reasons for the unplanned termination of these placements in Germany, England, and Switzerland. The Project 'Foster Care Placement Breakdown' (2014-2017) was a cooperation between the Universities of Siegen and London and the Zürich University of Applied Sciences, School of Social Work (lead), financed by the Jacobs Foundation. In this article, we present the findings from the Swiss subproject, focusing on the experiences and definitions of foster children and foster parents, exploring how foster children and foster parents experience and explain placement breakdown processes. We explore key topics and influences based on interviews with foster children (n=13) and foster parents (n=20). These qualitative, semi-structured interviews were carried out in German-speaking Switzerland. The data evaluation involved a combination of hermeneutic and content-analysis processes. The results show that foster care placement breakdown processes are always complex, subject to the influence of multiple factors, and cannot be reduced to isolated causes. What emerges clearly in the research, however, is that one experience common to foster children who have gone through a breakdown in foster care is the feeling of no longer belonging to the foster family from a particular point in time. From the perspective of the foster parents, it is possible to reconstruct different conditional constellations (e.g., stresses and burdens on foster parents or a lack of willingness of schools to support the foster child) associated with the process of foster care placement breakdown. The results provide important insights for the supervision of foster care placements and the management of placement breakdown processes.

Many of the child welfare policies and practices in Switzerland before the law reform of 1981 were rather invasive and were exercised under a legal context that sometimes threatened basic human rights. The inclusion of survivors of such measures in the research process has been vigorously requested in Switzerland. Therefore, four individuals who had been placed in institutions as children have been included in the process of preparing a recently initiated, 60-year follow-up study of individuals placed in infant care institutions in Switzerland in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Using focus interviews and “think-aloud” methods, the interviewees commented on two parts of the planned research process: (a) how to contact the cohort, and (b) finalising the assessment instruments. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Interviewees felt their participation was a sign of recognition of their experience and expertise. Their input contributed to the research in a host of ways. For example, they helped to make documents more understandable, identified errors and redundancies, and pointed out wording that might cause insecurities or negative reactions. They also pointed to shortcomings in some of the items used in the assessment instruments. In addition, they made significant contributions regarding how best to approach and work with the cohort. This study shows that, when researching historical compulsory social measures, the inclusion of formerly institutionalised individuals in development and implementation is not only feasible, but is of significant benefit to the quality of the research.

Auftraggeber Forschungsprojekt: Bildungsdirektion des Kantons Zürich, Amt für Jugend und Berufsberatung

Auftraggeber Forschungsprojekt: Bildungsdirektion des Kantons Zürich, Amt für Jugend und Berufsberatung