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Residential youth care settings should provide youth with safe environments where they are supported and treated. However, there are aspects of residential youth care that threaten its effectiveness, and which may also violate children’s rights. Staff members exercise power over the youth, which can be abused to coerce, punish, or limit the autonomy of youth. Currently, the harmful behavior of staff includes repression through such acts as harsh and unfair control, punishment, and lack of autonomy granting. However, research on the exact nature of repression is lacking, which hampers empirical research on repression in residential youth care, and makes it difficult for residential settings to recognize repression and take the right corrective measures. A scoping review of the available literature is conducted from a humanistic, social psychological, and organizational perspective to examine the nature of repression and to provide a valid definition and its antecedents. This article offers implications for preventing, recognizing, and diminishing repression in residential youth care.

Het uitgangspunt van de jeugdzorg anno 2014/2015 is dat jongeren met (ernstige) gedragsproblemen kunnen leren participeren in de Nederlandse samenleving. Gaat dit ook op voor delinquente jongeren in de Justitiële Jeugdinrichtingen? Waarschijnlijk wel, maar zeker weten doen we het nog niet.

Het uitgangspunt van de jeugdzorg anno 2014/2015 is dat jongeren met (ernstige) gedragsproblemen kunnen leren participeren in de Nederlandse samenleving. Gaat dit ook op voor delinquente jongeren in de Justitiële Jeugdinrichtingen? Waarschijnlijk wel, maar zeker weten doen we het nog niet.

Aggression in youth prison is considered a major problem, probably interfering with treatment and rehabilitative goals, and creating an unsafe work environment for group workers. The present study examined how inmates’ personality (dispositional characteristics) and living group climate (situational characteristics) contribute to aggression in a sample of 59 incarcerated delinquent boys. The results showed that open group climate was positively associated with agreeableness and openness and buffered against aggression through its positive effect on neuroticism. A repressive group climate was negatively associated with low neuroticism and proved to be unrelated to aggression. The discussion focuses on the importance of a positive living group climate for efficacious treatment and rehabilitation of incarcerated delinquent boys.

Aggression in youth prison is considered a major problem, probably interfering with treatment and rehabilitative goals, and creating an unsafe work environment for group workers. The present study examined how inmates’ personality (dispositional characteristics) and living group climate (situational characteristics) contribute to aggression in a sample of 59 incarcerated delinquent boys. The results showed that open group climate was positively associated with agreeableness and openness and buffered against aggression through its positive effect on neuroticism. A repressive group climate was negatively associated with low neuroticism and proved to be unrelated to aggression. The discussion focuses on the importance of a positive living group climate for efficacious treatment and rehabilitation of incarcerated delinquent boys.

The present study examines the construct validity and reliability of the Prison Group Climate Instrument (PGCI) in a sample of 77 adolescents placed in a Dutch youth prison and 49 adult prisoners living in a Dutch psychiatric prison with a therapeutic living group structure. Confirmatory factor analysis of a four-factor model—with “repression,” “support,” “growth,” and “group atmosphere” as first-order factors—and “overall group climate” as a second-order factor shows an adequate fit to the data, indicating construct validity of the PGCI. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients are good for all factors. The PGCI is a parsimonious instrument, enabling future research on group climate in youth prisons and secure forensic psychiatric institutions. The instrument can be used as an assessment tool for judicial interventions that use group climate to improve outcomes in delinquent youth and adult delinquents receiving treatment for psychiatric problems.

The present study examines the construct validity and reliability of the Prison Group Climate Instrument (PGCI) in a sample of 77 adolescents placed in a Dutch youth prison and 49 adult prisoners living in a Dutch psychiatric prison with a therapeutic living group structure. Confirmatory factor analysis of a four-factor model—with “repression,” “support,” “growth,” and “group atmosphere” as first-order factors—and “overall group climate” as a second-order factor shows an adequate fit to the data, indicating construct validity of the PGCI. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients are good for all factors. The PGCI is a parsimonious instrument, enabling future research on group climate in youth prisons and secure forensic psychiatric institutions. The instrument can be used as an assessment tool for judicial interventions that use group climate to improve outcomes in delinquent youth and adult delinquents receiving treatment for psychiatric problems.

Over the past four years five studies in a Dutch correctional institution were conducted, which started by constructing and validating an instrument measuring group living climate, as little is known about group climate properties in youth prison. As incarcerated youth spent most of their time in this environment, apart from attending school or therapy, living group climate is thought to exert a substantial influence on adolescent inmates. Results of these five studies confirmed this assumption and showed that a positive (therapeutic) living group climate could stimulate development in incarcerated adolescents. In these five studies, living group quality proved to be associated with treatment motivation, locus of control, coping, empathy, stabilization of personality and self-reported aggression. A repressive living group climate was associated with negative developmental characteristics and aggression, whereas an open living group climate was associated with positive social development.

Over the past four years five studies in a Dutch correctional institution were conducted, which started by constructing and validating an instrument measuring group living climate, as little is known about group climate properties in youth prison. As incarcerated youth spent most of their time in this environment, apart from attending school or therapy, living group climate is thought to exert a substantial influence on adolescent inmates. Results of these five studies confirmed this assumption and showed that a positive (therapeutic) living group climate could stimulate development in incarcerated adolescents. In these five studies, living group quality proved to be associated with treatment motivation, locus of control, coping, empathy, stabilization of personality and self-reported aggression. A repressive living group climate was associated with negative developmental characteristics and aggression, whereas an open living group climate was associated with positive social development.