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This chapter provides information about PLANEA, a flexible online life skills training program for youth in residential care. The PLANEA program gradually supports the development of autonomy and life skills in residential settings according to each young person’s unique needs and characteristics. The initial version was piloted in Spain at local request, but the program has clear cross-national roots as it built upon and extends an earlier transition program in Finland and several other European countries. PLANEA follows in a longstanding line of applied research projects in Spanish residential care originating from the Child and Family Research Group (GIFI) at the University of Oviedo in Spain. This project, in particular, as well as its predecessor studies provides a model of partnership between youth and family practice and universities that we believe has much to commend it.

This final chapter synthesizes the main findings from the 16-country cross-national review of residential care for children and youth. Major topics include differing rates of use for residential care, characteristics of children and youth served, contextual elements and policy developments, quality factors in residential care, and education and training strategies. The authors conclude with some general recommendations for future improvement of residential child and youth care, including policy initiatives, research, and promising pathways for innovation. The authors urge a more nuanced and better specified conceptualization of residential care. They make the case for continued and expanded cross-national analysis of residential care provision in future.

This chapter details the progression of Spanish residential care through a period of civil war followed by 40 years of dictatorship, when large institutions prevailed. The arrival of a democratic government in the late 1970s marked the beginning of a period of transformation in child welfare, including the introduction of family foster care and the expansion of family support services, the evolution of standards for residential care, and the development of research alliances with Spanish universities to identify effective strategies for residential staff training. Spain’s residential care population includes a high percentage of unaccompanied minors who, along with youth who present with severe behavioral and emotional problems, are a present focus of concern. The chapter concludes with the matrix used throughout the book, which provides information about the current policy context, key trends and initiatives, characteristics of children and youth served, preparation of residential care personnel, promising programmatic innovations, and present strengths and challenges.

Chapter 1 sets the parameters for the editors’ view of “residential care for children and youth” and offers a working definition of the same viewed in the context of legal, administrative, and children’s rights within an organized child welfare system. The editors make clear the rationale for their choice of a range of countries with developed welfare systems, while acknowledging a far more diverse range of residential settings viewed in worldwide context. The contributors to this volume share a commitment to a high-quality, revitalized residential service sector grounded both in research and commonly shared values such as partnership with families and residential practice that is close to the rhythms of diverse and vital community life. This does not mean “one size fits all,” but rather that we can learn much from the often subtle ways in which culture and tradition create the niches within which residential services are formed, sustained, and changed.

Background: This study aimed to adapt and validate a staff version of the PLANEA Independent Life Skills Assessment tools, which were then used to explore the convergence between self-reported and staff views of independent living skills of young people in residential child care in Spain. Method: A sample of 422 care-experienced young people was evaluated by their residential or care workers (n = 219) using the staff version of PLANEA instruments. Psychometric analyses were carried out to study dimensionality and measuring properties of the instruments, while t-tests, Pearson correlations and Fisher’s z were used to study convergence between informants. Results: The results show that the internal structure of the instruments was confirmed for the staff versions (three first-order factors and one second-order factor model for PLANEA-S, unidimensional model for PLANEA-9-S, and two-factor correlated model for PLANEA-T-S). The instruments showed excellent reliability (ω = .80-.97) and discriminative capacity. Staff showed less optimistic views than young people about their independent living skills but not their autonomy to perform everyday life tasks. This was mediated by the role of the adult respondent towards the young person evaluated. Conclusions: As conclusions we can say that the validated staff version of the PLANEA Independent Life Skills Assessment tools expands the scope for assessing this construct in young people in care from a multi-informant perspective. This is key for child protection services to address young people’s individual needs and inform decision-making regarding the provision of support services that will promote a successful transition from care to adulthood for them.

A growing body of research focus on subjective well-being (SWB) in adolescence; however there are few studies focus specifcally on the residential care population and even fewer on diferences by type of residential facility separately for males and females. This study aims to analyze SWB in therapeutic residential care (a residential program created to address youths with severe emotional and behavioral problems) in relation to young people in other kinds of residential child care (RCC). 567 adolescents aged 14-18 from Therapeutic Residential Care (TRC) (n=256) and RCC (n=311) participated in the study. Results showed few signifcant diferences concerning the residential program factor. Satisfaction with their own family was greater for young people in TRC and satisfaction, both with the groups they belong to and with their own residential facility, rated higher among the RCC group. Regarding diferences by sex, females reported less SWB in all the domains including overall life satisfaction. The efect of the interaction between sex and type of residential program showed that females in TRC reported SWB, particularly low. The main implications for research and intervention will be discussed. Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research study was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spain through the National Plan of I + D + i (PSI2015-65229-R and PSI2012-33185). The author Alba Águila-Otero holds a post-doctoral scholarship from the Severo Ochoa Program for Training in Research and Teaching in the Principality of Asturias (BP16061).

Residential child care in Portugal is the most common protection measure in cases of family separation, since family foster care is still very rare. However, little is known about the needs of thes...

The aim of this study was to develop and validate the PLANEA Independent Life Skills Scale, an instrument created according to the Planea Program framework for training independent living skills in young people in residential care.A sample of 1,098 young people took part, 60% were women and 37% were living in residential child care, with a mean age of 17.69 years ( SD = 2.25). Psychometric analyses were carried out within the frameworks of Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory models.The new instrument demonstrated three first-order factors (Self-Care and Wellbeing, Daily Arrangements and Organizational Skills, and Employment and Accommodation) and one second-order factor (Independent Life Skills), with excellent test score reliability, including a short version, PLANEA-9 (ω = .86 - .94). Clear evidence was found of validity in relation to other variables, such as general self-efficacy ( r = .519), and discriminative capacity.The PLANEA Independent Life Skills Scale was shown to be a reliable valid instrument for assessing this construct in young people.

The social changes experienced in many countries have prolonged the transition to adult life for young people. That being said, those who leave child care cannot afford this privilege, in that they do not benefit from the same support and resources, having to confront an accelerated transition which exposes them to increased risk of negative outcomes and social exclusion. Moreover, this transition might be even riskier for unaccompanied migrant care leavers, who are four times as vulnerable, given their status as young people in care, as adolescents, as migrants and being unaccompanied. This paper seeks to explore the profiles, needs, and experiences of unaccompanied young migrants in comparison with other care leavers. Data were collected by means of a semi-structured interview to explore their pre-care, in-care, and aftercare experiences. A highly specific profile of unaccompanied young migrants has been revealed that differs from the other care leavers in terms of worse educational, occupational, and economic outcomes, limited support networks, and more obstacles to accessing aftercare supports. Conversely, they also exhibited some strengths, such as having less pre-care, in care, and aftercare traumatic experiences, less psychological distress and fewer risky behaviors compared with other care leavers.

Therapeutic residential care (TRC) is the name given to specialized children's homes for treating cases with severe emotional and behavioural problems that have been placed in residential care. A recent international review has revealed great diversity in the referral criteria of cases and in the models of intervention carried out. The goal of this study is to describe the population treated in these types of facilities in Spain and the therapeutic coverage given. The sample is made up of 215 young people in children's homes, of whom 93 are in TRC. The cases referred to TRC have been in residential care for less time but have gone through a greater number of placements. These young people also exhibit more problems of drug use, and there is a larger percentage of clinical-range cases in the Child Behaviour Checklist scales of attention problems and aggressive behaviour. Nevertheless, the results of logistic regression indicate that the only variables that significantly increase the probability of being referred to TRC are drug use and changes of care placements. With regard to therapeutic care, there is a higher percentage in the TRC group receiving psychiatric care, and the sessions are also more frequent.

Adverse family conditions, abuse and neglect during childhood present important risk factors for the appearance of emotional and behavioral problems. The main aim of this paper is to describe the presence of these kinds of disorders in children in residential child care and to explore individual, socio-family and care process factors associated with the use of mental health services. The sample consisted of 1216 children 6–18 years old in residential care in several Spanish regions. Information about emotional and behavioral problems was gathered according to two criteria: receiving some kind of treatment services and/or being identified as within the clinical range in the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Results showed that 49% of cases were receiving some kind of mental health treatment and 61% were identified as within the clinical range in some of the broad band scales of the CBCL. In terms of agreement between referral to treatment and CBCL scores, results showed that four out of ten cases identified as within the clinical range were not receiving any kind of treatment. Several factors related to the type of problems detected in the CBCL, personal variables, and child care arrangements are associated with greater use of mental health services.

Background Adolescents in Residential Child Care (RCC) report high levels of victimization. This has been linked to mental health problems and a higher risk of substance use and substance use problems. The present study aimed to evaluate the specific impact of different forms of victimization on alcohol and cannabis use problems among adolescents in RCC, attending to sex differences. Methods 321 adolescents from 38 residential therapeutic care facilities in Spain participated in the study. Thirty-six different forms of victimization were evaluated, as well as alcohol and cannabis use problems. Impact of polyvictimization and specific forms of victimization on alcohol and cannabis use problems and disorders were calculated using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and logistic regression models. Results Girls in RCC reported significantly more experiences of victimization. Polyvictimization was associated with alcohol use problems but not cannabis use problems. Property, domestic and community victimization showed the highest predictive role regarding alcohol and cannabis use disorders, with significant interactions with sex and migrant family background. Conclusions Adolescents in RCC reported considerably high levels of victimization and alcohol and cannabis use problems. In this population, property victimization, as well as indirect domestic and community victimization were predictors of further substance use problems, with girls being particularly sensitive to victimization. Migrant family backgrounds can also have an influence on the impact of some victimization forms on substance use. Victimization associated to high-risk environments and families could contribute to explain the high levels of substance use problems in this population.

Residential child care is a very complex measure and has been the subject of heated debate in many countries. However, there is a paucity of studies that examine quality assessments of these services, much less that have asked the children and young people receiving those services about their own evaluations.This study interviewed 209 young people between 11 and 20 years of age, in 21 residential facilities, about their degree of satisfaction with the care they receive. These residential facilities are differentiated into three types of programs that will be compared: preparation for adult life (PAL), therapeutic care for behavioral problems (TRC) and general programs for children and young people without any specific profile (GRC). The instrument used is an interview that includes both quantitative and qualitative assessments.The results show a trend toward positive average scores on practically all aspects, highlighting the support from as well as the connection they feel with the educators who care for them. On the other hand, young people in TRC displayed lower scores on almost all aspects evaluated while those in PAL were the most positive.The main implications for the practice will be discussed from these youthsrsquo; perspective.

Residential care (RC) in Portugal accounts for almost 90% of out-of-home placements of children. Since the Youth Self-Report (YSR) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) are the most commonly used psychological (mal)adjustment screening instruments, it is important to analyze their comparative validity specifically in the context of RC. This study aims to analyze the comparative effectiveness of YSR/SDQ as screening tools of psychological (mal)adjustment, looking for differences in the way psychological problems and difficulties are identified by these two measures in adolescents in RC. Sixty-one adolescents, aged 12–20, living in five RC settings participated in this study. Participants’ characteristics at the time of admission were collected using the previous request for infomation (PIP) from the Portuguese Comprehensive Assessment System for Residential Care Quality (ARQUA-P). Participants filled out both the YSR and the self-report form of SDQ. Significant correlations between the two self-report measures of adolescents’ psychological adjustment were observed. Additionally, the utility of each measure differed based on youngsters’ characteristics, potentially supporting the simultaneous use of both instruments. Implications for further research and professional practice in RC are discussed, namely the differential utility of using YSR and/or SDQ as a screening tool with this population.

espanolEn este articulo se revisa la situacion de los psicologos y su papel en la intervencion social en el sector de familia e infancia. Para ello se repasaran algunos de los momentos clave para la incorporacion de estos profesionales, tanto en el nivel comunitario, de competencia municipal, como en el desarrollo de los servicios especializados autonomicos como el acogimiento familiar, residencial o de adopcion. Se hara particular enfasis en lo que ha supuesto la reforma realizada en julio de 2015 de la Ley Organica 1/96 de Proteccion Juridica del Menor, que plantea muy importantes retos al trabajo de los equipos interdisciplinares caracteristicos de este sector. Se comentaran sus implicaciones para los psicologos del nivel comunitario al abordar situaciones de riesgo, asi como los cambios en el nivel especializado referentes a novedades como los centros especificos para problemas de conducta, la necesidad de usar el acogimiento familiar con los ninos mas pequenos o la posibilidad de realizar adopciones abiertas EnglishIn this article we review the situation of psychologists and their role in social intervention in the child and family sector. In order to do this, some of the key moments for the incorporation of these professionals will be reviewed, both at the community level, in charge of the municipal authority, and the specialized regional services such as foster care, residential care or adoption. Particular emphasis will be placed on the reform implemented in July 2015 of Organic Law 1/96 on the Legal Protection of Minors, which poses very significant challenges to the work of the interdisciplinary teams that are typical of this sector. The implications for psychologists at the community level will be discussed when addressing risk situations, as well as changes at the specialized level referring to novelties such as therapeutic residential care for behavioral problems, the need to use family foster care with younger children, or the possibility of carrying out open adoptions

The author Carla González García holds a pre-doctoral scholarship from the National Program of Training for Improving Talent and employability in the frame-work of the National Plan of Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013-2016 and co-financed by the European Social Fund (BES-2016-078139).The author Alba Águila holds a pre-doctoral scholarship from the Severo Ochoa Program for training in research and teaching in Principality of Asturias ( BP160 61).This research has been supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spain through the National Plan of I+D+i (PSI2012-33185)

Young people in residential care (RC) are a group at high risk of developing mental health problems. One of the most commonly-used screening instruments is Achenbach and Rescorla (2001) dimensional, multi-informant ASEBA. The main objective of this study is to analyze the level of agreement between young people in RC and their care workers (who, in Spain, are called social educators, and who have a specific university degree). 617 young people in RC aged between 11 and 17 completed the Youth Self Report, while their social educators completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). A 2 × 2 ANOVA was performed with the intra-subject variable being the test scores and the inter-subject variable being in receipt of specialist treatment or not. The results indicate that the social educators tended to score more highly in externalizing scales, whereas the young people reported more internalizing problems. In the treatment group, the CBCL scores were higher than the YSR scores, but in the non-treatment group the opposite was found, particularly in internalizing scales. The results are discussed in comparison with concordance studies in the general population and we conclude that multi-informant instruments are appropriate for the population in RC.

This article closes the special issue of this journal about an international review of out-of-home child care, principally family foster care and residential care, tough several aspects related to adoption were included as well. Although a comparison on some data about residential and foster care, or kinship and non-kinship care, is carried out, the article tries above all to make a reflection on the implications of several themes that have emerged as more interesting or important. Matters such as the use of residential care and its role in the current child care system, the overrepresentation of ethnic minorities in foster care in several countries, the situation of unaccompanied young people asylum seeking, the use of adoption as a permanent solution, the challenges of the transition to the adulthood from care, the relevance of the professionalization and models based on social pedagogy, the evaluation and planning based on data, and the current financial crisis and its impact on child care systems are some of the remarkable topics that will be reviewed.

Children and adolescents who live in out of home care in the child protection system are considered to be vulnerable to manifesting mental health disorders as well as other types of difficulties. This risk is greater in the case of children who display any type of disability. The aim of this study is to profile the state of health and well-being of a group of children presenting intellectual disability who live in residential care in a Spanish autonomous community and to compare these results with their non-disabled peers.Two questionnaires filled in by the caseworker and key residential worker, respectively, were used and a screening test (CBCL) was administered to assess the children's emotional and behavioral status.The results indicate that there are more vulnerability factors in this group of children comparing to their peers; in particular, a greater likelihood of having parents with a history of mental health and alcoholism and greater frequency of intellectual disability in their mothers. Likewise, they had a greater probability of having suffered physical abuse. The screening revealed the existence of greater alterations on the scale of social and thought problems, as well as a greater probability of being referred for treatment and greater use of psychotropic medication. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of mental health disorders in children living in residential care and their use of therapeutic services, including the relationship between these factors and social-family and intervention process variables, as well as the relationship among the disorders identified by professionals and the detection of disorders by means of a screening instrument. We studied a sample from the Autonomous Community of Extremadura in Spain made up of 264 children ages 6 to 18 years. Data collected from residential care workers on the children’s characteristics and the existence of disorders and possible treatments were used, as well as the Child Behavioral Checklist as a screening instrument. In addition, the case social workers provided information on social-family and intervention process variables. Results show that 26% of the children in residential care were receiving or had received treatment for mental health disorders. Seventeen percent of the total presented mental disability, and in half of these cases, they were also being treated for mental disorder. The screening test, however, detected that cases with clinical range accounted for 44% of the children and that there was considerable bias in relation to referrals for treatment.

none 32 si The International Work Group for Therapeutic Residential Care convened an International Summit on ‘Pathways to Evidence-Based Practice’ at Loughborough University (GBR), Centre for Child and Family Research on 27-29 April, 2016 with generous support from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust and in partnership with The European Scientific Association on Residential and Family Care for Children and Adolescents (NLD) (EUSARF), the International Association for Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research on Family and Children’s Services (ITA) (IAOBER) and the Association of Children’s Residential Centers (USA) and with the additional support of Action for Children (GBR) and the National Implementation Service (NIS) (GBR). Membership includes: Lisa Holmes (Chair), Director, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University (GBR); James K. Whittaker (Co-Chair), Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, School of Social Work, Seattle (USA); Jorge Fernandez del Valle, Professor of Psychology and Director, Child and Family Research Group, University of Oviedo (ESP); Frank Ainsworth, Senior Principal Research Fellow (Adjunct), James Cook University, School of Social Work and Human Services, Townsville, Queensland (AUS); Tore Andreassen, Psychologist, The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (NOR); James P. Anglin, Professor, Faculty of the School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria (CAN); Christopher Bellonci, Board-Certified Child/Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist; Associate Professor, Psychiatry Department, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA (USA); David Berridge, Professor of Child and Family Welfare, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol (GBR); Amaia Bravo, Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo (ESP); Cinzia Canali, Senior Researcher, Fondazione Emanuela Zancan, Padova (ITA) and President, International Association of Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research in Family and Children’s Services (IAOBER); Mark Courtney, Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago (USA); Laurah Currey, Chief Operating Officer, Pressley Ridge, Pittsburgh, PA (USA) and President, Association for Children’s Residential Centers, (USA); Daniel. L. Daly, Executive Vice President and Director of Youth Care, Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home, Boys Town, NE (USA); Robbie Gilligan, Professor of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin IRE), Hans Grietens, Professor, Centre for Special Needs Education & Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD) and President, European Scientific Association on Residential and Family Care for Children and Adolescents (EUSARF); Annemiek T. Harder, Assistant professor, Department of Special Needs Education and Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD); Martha J. Holden, Senior Extension Associate with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and the Principal Investigator and Director of the Residential Child Care Project at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (USA); Sigrid James, Professor, Department of Social Work & Social Ecology, School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University, CA (USA); Andrew Kendrick, Professor of Residential Child Care, School of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde (GBR) and Consultant at the Centre of Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS) and the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) (UK); Erik J. Knorth, Professor, Department of Special Needs Education and Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD); Mette Lausten, Senior Researcher at SFI - The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Copenhagen (DNK), John S. Lyons, Senior Policy Fellow at Chapin Hall, University of Chicago, IL (USA); Eduardo Martin, Lecturer at the Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife (ESP); Samantha McDermid, Research Fellow, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University (GBR); Patricia McNamara, Senior Fellow (Honorary), Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne (AUS); Laura Palareti, Assistant Professor in Social Psychology, Department of Education Studies, University of Bologna (ITA); Susan Ramsey, Parent and Former Children’s Mental Health Advocate, The Walker School, Needham, MA (USA); Kari M. Sisson, Executive Director, Association of Children’s Residential Centers (USA); Richard W. Small, Walker Executive Director Emeritus, The Walker School, Needham, MA (USA); June Thoburn, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, University of East Anglia (GBR); Ronald Thompson, Senior Director, Boys Town National Research Institute for Child and Family Studies, Boys Town, NE (USA); Anat Zeira, Professor, School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Head of Research and Evaluation at the Haruv Institute (ISR). Our work group wishes to thank CFRC staffer Laura Dale at Loughborough for extraordinary efforts in producing this statement in record time and for her care and assistance with all phases of our Summit activity. Whittaker, James K; Holmes, Lisa; del Valle, Jorge F.; Ainsworth, Frank; Andreassen, Tore; Anglin, James; Bellonci, Christopher; Berridge, David; Bravo, Amaia; Canali, Cinzia; Courtney, Mark; Currey, Laurah; Daly, Daniel; Gilligan, Robbie; Grietens, Hans; Harder, Annemiek; Holden, Martha; James, Sigrid; Kendrick, Andrew; Knorth, Erik; Lausten, Mette; Lyons, John; Martin, Eduardo; Mcdermid, Samantha; Mcnamara, Patricia; Palareti, Laura; Ramsey, Susan; Sisson, Kari; Small, Richard; Thoburn, June; Thompson, Ronald; Zeira, Anat Whittaker, James K; Holmes, Lisa; del Valle, Jorge F.; Ainsworth, Frank; Andreassen, Tore; Anglin, James; Bellonci, Christopher; Berridge, David; Bravo, Amaia; Canali, Cinzia; Courtney, Mark; Currey, Laurah; Daly, Daniel; Gilligan, Robbie; Grietens, Hans; Harder, Annemiek; Holden, Martha; James, Sigrid; Kendrick, Andrew; Knorth, Erik; Lausten, Mette; Lyons, John; Martin, Eduardo; Mcdermid, Samantha; Mcnamara, Patricia; Palareti, Laura; Ramsey, Susan; Sisson, Kari; Small, Richard; Thoburn, June; Thompson, Ronald; Zeira, Anat

The voice of foster families is a valuable tool in the development and improvement of foster family services. Regularly evaluating the satisfaction of foster carers can facilitate the early identification of a range of problems that might pose a risk to the placement.This article reports the experience of 200 Spanish foster families (kinship and non-kinship) with foster services in relation to motivation for becoming foster carers, sources of stress and reward, satisfaction with the services and needs. Semi-structured interviews were performed. The aims of the research are principally of a descriptive character, so each group of variables was examined using frequency analysis.The foster carers interviewed demonstrated a high degree of satisfaction with the foster programs, although some areas seem more problematic, such as financial compensation, information provided about the fostered child, contact with the birth family and the sensitivity of professionals.This study reveals several differences with regard to international literature, that are related to particularities of the Spanish child care system. The results may be extremely useful for the implementation of policy changes which could contribute to raised levels of satisfaction for the foster carers, and increased effectiveness of the programs.

In this paper, we analyse reunification processes from family foster care, both kinship and non-kinship, and the variables associated with them in a Spanish sample. Data collection was carried out after a review of child protection and foster care files, and those responsible for the cases were also consulted. The cases studied were closed, which made it possible to assess the final outcome of the fostering. We found that only one-fifth of the children return to their birth family after the fostering, and that those in non-kinship are less likely to do so. Seven factors were associated with family reunification processes: age of the child, kinship care with family co-operation, drug dependence in parents, neglect due to alcoholism, foster care under voluntary arrangement with visits, short-term fostering with family co-operation and parental impossibility due to imprisonment. The contribution of these data takes on particular importance given that the Spanish child protection system keeps no official statistics on the development or outcome of its interventions and records even less information on the factors associated with such outcomes.

Kinship care represents 46% of all out-of-home care placements in Spain and 80% of all foster care placements. Therefore, the role of fostering relatives, most of whom (about 70%) are grandparents, is particularly relevant in the Spanish child care system. In 1998 we carried out a descriptive study on profiles of kinship care in Spain, including children, birth parents, fostering relatives and patterns of process and intervention, with a sample of 568 cases. This paper presents a follow-up study of a part of this group who were adults in 2006, aimed at assessing their transition to adulthood. A subset of 143 young adults was eligible for this follow-up study, which consists of a personal interview and questionnaires. We were able to assess a sample of 67 young adults in this way, and collect some relevant information on another 56 cases. The results show that only a small part of the sample present serious problems of social exclusion (9%), whilst 70% have found employment or are in higher education and with a relatively stable life, even though, in general, their jobs are of a low-skilled nature. We also discuss other important aspects, such as the frequent loss (through death) of grandparent foster carers and the lack of help and support from the authorities for their kinship carers perceived by the young people themselves.

The authors carried out an assessment of social support networks with a sample of 884 Spanish adolescents aged 12 to 17. The main goal was to analyze the development of the figures of parents and peers as providers of social support in the two basic dimensions of emotional and instrumental support. In peers, they distinguished between the contexts from which they came (school, associations, and friends from the community) to observe whether there were different tendencies. The results of the MANOVA indicate significant effects on both dimensions for the factors age, provider, and interaction between the two. The authors conclude that the tendencies for decline in the provision of support from parents and the corresponding increase in support from peers during adolescence are different for each dimension, and also for the different types of friends, according to context. Parents maintain a good level of instrumental support, but not of emotional support. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

article i nfo Article history: This article presents data from the first nationwide study in this area, with the aim of analyzing its level of establishment and in order to make comparisons with the situation in other countries. We analyzed a sample of 649 cases, covering both kinship and non-kinship foster care. With the help of child welfare staff we analyzed the cases and considered variables in relation to the profiles of the children, their birth families and the foster caregivers, as well as some basic data on processes and outcomes. In general, the results indicate substantial differences with respect to other countries, especially in view of the high levels of stability and permanence of children in foster care. However, non-kinship care is scarcely established (15%, compared to 85% for kinship care), and the article analyzes some of the possible reasons for this. Kinship care differs from non-kinship care in many aspects, including some as important as greater rates of family reunification and a lower rate of placement disruptions. Due to the fact that non-kinship care frequently becomes a long-term placement, and even in many cases ending with adoption by caregivers, they tend to take on no more than a single experience of foster care.

There is an international consensus about the need to avoid prolonged stays in residential care and a preference for family-based interventions for those children who have been separated from their families. Nevertheless, Spanish statistics show a high number of children entering residential placements and little development of non-kinship family foster programmes. This article analyses the factors which influence the intensive use of residential placements and the reasons which lead to many children spending long periods of their lives in residential facilities. These questions are investigated through a study of 238 children aged twelve and under in residential foster-care, who had spent at least a third of their lives in that situation. The case information was obtained through collaboration with social workers who supplied data about the profile of the children, their families, their care histories and prospective outcomes. Certain characteristics of the children (age, physical and psychological problems) and the family of origin (serious psycho-social problems) seem to explain the long stays of these children in residential care. The article concludes with a discussion of the practical implications these results have for the improvement of child protection systems' response to these challenges.

BackgroundChild welfare professionals regularly make crucial decisions that have a significant impact on children and their families. The present study utilizes the Judgments and Decision Processes in Context model (JUDPIC) to examine the relationships between three independent factors: case characteristic (mother’s wish with regard to removal), practitioner characteristic (child welfare attitudes), and protective system context (four countries: Israel, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Spain); and three dependent factors: substantiation of maltreatment, risk assessment, and intervention recommendation.Method The sample consisted of 828 practitioners from four countries. Participants were presented with a vignette of a case of alleged child maltreatment and were asked to determine whether maltreatment was substantiated, assess risk and recommend an intervention using structured instruments. Participants’ child welfare attitudes were assessed. FindingsThe case characteristic of mother’s wish with regard to removal had no impact on judgments and decisions. In contrast, practitioners’ child welfare attitudes were associated with substantiation, risk assessments and recommendations. There were significant country differences on most measures. Discussion and ImplicationsThe findings support most of the predictions derived from the JUDPIC model. The significant differences between practitioners from different countries underscore the importance of context in child protection decision making. Training should practitioners’ awareness of the impact that their attitudes and the context in which they are embedded have on their judgments and decisions.

Los procesos de acogimiento familiar que se producen en cada país dependen de factores históricos y culturales que dan lugar a grandes diferencias internacionales. A pesar de que las comparativas internacionales ofrecen un medio de intercambio de experiencias, lo que permite el aprendizaje mutuo y la transferencia de buenas prácticas, a menudo encontramos enormes barreras para su realización debido, entre otros factores, al limitado acceso a los datos sobre la práctica de la protección infantil. Frente a estas limitaciones, este artículo ofrece una investigación comparativa realizada en España y Portugal, cuyo objetivo ha sido la evaluación del acogimiento familiar en dos países donde la investigación en el ámbito de la protección infantil há sido tradicionalmente desatendida. Sobre una muestra de 357 casos en España y 289 en Portugal, se realizó un estudio del perfil de características de los niños acogidos, las familias de origen y los acogedores, así como de los procesos de acogida en ambos países. La comparativa reveló importantes diferencias relacionadas con la mayor edad al inicio del acogimiento de los niños en España; el perfil de los acogedores, con edades más avanzadas, un bajo nivel educativo y llevando a cabo acogidas de más de un niño simultaneamente en Portugal. El estudio comparado nos ha permitido identificar áreas que requieren mayor atención en ambos países, como la renovación generacional del banco de acogedores en Portugal o la necesidad de acelerar los procesos de toma de decisiones para la entrada en acogimiento familiar en España. Se pretende que este artículo sirva de aliento para la recogida de datos y comparación con otros países iberoamericanos., Fostering processes that occur in each country depend on historical and cultural factors that give rise to large international differences. Despite the fact that international comparisons offer a way of exchanging experiences, allowing mutual learning and transfer of good practice, we often encounter major barriers for its completion due to limited access to data on child protection practice, among other factors. Given these limitations, this article provides a comparative study conducted in Spain and Portugal. The aim is the evaluation of family foster care interventions in two countries where research in the field of child protection has traditionally been neglected. The profile of foster children, families of origin and foster families, as well as the features of the fostering processes were studied in a sample of 357 cases in Spain and 289 in Portugal. The comparison revealed significant differences related to the older age of Spanish foster children at the beginning of the foster placement. The profile of foster carers revealed older age, low educational level and frequent situations of multiple placements in Portugal. The comparative study has identified areas that require further attention in both countries, such as the generational shift of foster carers in Portugal or the need to speed up the decisionmaking processes for entry into a family foster placement in Spain. This article intends to be an encouragement for data collection and comparison in other Latin American countries.

Resumen: Se analiza la comparabilidad interlinguistica e intercultural del bienestar subjetivo durante la adolescencia, a partir de dos muestras de Asturias y de Cataluna de entre 15 y 18 anos. Se utilizan como indicadores psicosociales de bienestar tres escalas: La SWLS de Diener, Emmons, Larsen y Smith (1985), escala libre de contexto (context free), el PWI de Cummins, Eckersley, van Pallant, Vugt y Misajon (2003), que evalua el bienestar personal por ambitos, y una escala de item unico sobre satisfaccion global con la vida (Overall Life Satisfaction = OLS). Utilizando modelos de Analisis Factorial Confirmatorio, el PWI muestra un buen ajuste para ambas muestras, avalando la comparabilidad de los resultados entre ambas poblaciones. Sus puntuaciones globales resultan mas altas entre los adolescentes asturianos que entre los catalanes, igual que la OLS. La SWLS muestra un mal ajuste con los terminos constantes restringidos, que anadido al hecho que el alpha de Cronbach aumentaria si el item 5 fuera suprimido, abunda en la idea que esta escala funciona de manera distinta en contextos socio-culturales diferentes y mantiene abiertas las dudas sobre si es apropiada su utilizacion como instrumento comparativo entre poblaciones de caracteristicas linguisticas y/o socioculturales distintas. Palabras clave: Bienestar subjetivo; adolescencia; PWI; SWLS; satisfaccion vital; bienestar personal; analisis factorial confirmatorio; modelos de ecuaciones estructurales. Title: Adolescents’ subjective well-being: A comparative study between two Autonomous Communities in Spain.

This paper reviews international and national research on young people leaving care. Research has shown that the journey to adulthood from public care is shorter, more compressed and accelerated that that of their peers. This process presents higher difficulties in different areas such as employment, accommodation, educational opportunities, physical and mental health, etc. The situation of care leavers has gained more attention internationally leading to the development of different legal advances which mean the extension of care, the implementation of independent living skills programs, the introduction of mentoring programs, the emphasis on educational and employment services and the creation of personal transition plans, among other changes. In Spain, this topic has started to receive some attention in recent regional legislation which highlights the need to invest more efforts in the transition to adulthood of young people leaving care.

The analysis of the historical development of child protection in Spain and Italy shows remarkable common aspects. There has been a strong tradition of using residential care by means of large institutions, mostly run by catholic religious organizations, in both countries, and both have had to face the challenge of changing the tendency of this institutional care to a family based care. On the other hand, both countries share a Mediterranean culture where the family has been the main provider of personal and social wellbeing, although the welfare state has achieved a high level of development with large health, education, and social services coverage in the last decades. The current financial crisis of these countries is jeopardizing these recently attained advances and again the importance of family support is becoming crucial. The article reviews the historical development of out-of-home care in both countries and compares foster family and residential care, as well as the main research contributions to these topics in both countries.

La ruptura del acogimiento familiar se ha definido como aquella situación en la que alguna de las partes implicadas causa una terminación de la intervención antes de haber alcanzado los objetivos establecidos en el plan de caso. Este trabajo presenta un estudio llevado a cabo en una muestra española de 318 casos cerrados de niños que fueron acogidos en familia ajena y extensa. Los datos se obtuvieron a través de la revisión exhaustiva de los expedientes de protección y acogimiento, complementada con entrevistas a los técnicos encargados de cada caso. La tasa de ruptura del conjunto de la muestra fue de 26,1%, si bien fue significativamente diferente en familia extensa (19,7%) que en familia ajena (31,2%). Los resultados de este estudio indican que las variables relacionadas con la ruptura dependen de la modalidad del acogimiento, en familia ajena o extensa. En el primer caso destacamos las variables relacionadas con las características del niño, especialmente los problemas de conducta y escolares, con especial relevancia en el grupo de 9-12 años, y el haber estado en acogimiento residencial previamente. En cambio, en extensa resulta más importante la problemática en los padres (prisión, salud mental) y el tener una medida de tutela. También el hecho de que se realice el acogimiento tras pasar por hogares de acogida resulta trascendental. Finalmente, la disponibilidad de recursos económicos e incluso los estudios de los acogedores parecen ser variables relacionadas con la ruptura de la acogida Breakdown of foster care has been defined as the situation in which one of the involved parties terminates the intervention before having achieved the goals established for the case plan. This work presents a study carried out with a Spanish sample of 318 closed cases of children who were placed in foster homes and kinship care. The data were collected through the exhaustive review of the child protection and foster placement files, complemented with interviews of the welfare workers in charge of each case. The rate of breakdown of the entire sample was 26.1%, although it was significantly different in kinship care (19.7%) and foster care (31.2%). The results of this study indicate that the variables related to breakdown depend on the placement modality, either in foster care or kinship care. In the first case, the variables related to the child’s characteristics are noteworthy, especially behavior and academic problems, with special relevance in the 9-12-year-old group, and in children who were previously in residential care. In contrast, in kinship care, the parents’ problems (prison, mental health) and having some measure of guardianship are the most important. The fact of undergoing foster placement after having lived in various residential homes is transcendental. Lastly, the availability of economic resources and even the foster carers’ studies seem to be related to foster breakdown