A post-residential-treatment follow-up of socially and emotionally deviant adolescents in Israel

Abstract

Fifty-five emotionally and socially deviant but normally intelligent adolescents who had spent 2-7 years in a children's and apprentice home in Israel were followed up 5-9 years after they had left the institution. Their postresidential social and vocational careers were evaluated by means of personal interviews, home visits, and reports from employers, and it was found that good adjustment was substantially related to family background variables (having lived with biological parents prior to residential placement, mutual positive relationship between parent and child, being first born) as well as to satisfactory behavior and performance in peer group, school, and workshop during residence. Level of intelligence, unrelated to overall adjustment, correlated positively with vocational status and income at followup. On the other hand, length of stay in the apprentice home had no impact on postresidential adaptation to work and society. Fewer than 10% of exinmates expressed retrospectively a negative attitude toward their stay in the institution. The importance of paying more attention to the eventual long-term and enduring impact of family relationship on the residential and postresidential behavior of adolescents is discussed, suggesting a shift of emphasis in evaluating factors involved in institutional treatment. Findings also indicate that later social and vocational success may be fairly predicted from observation of behavior during the stay in the institution.

Development and Dissemination of Collaborative Family‐Oriented Services: The Case of Community/Day Residential Care in Israel

“…The critique was also fueled by the expense of long‐term residential care and the increasing number of children referred to these facilities. Furthermore, follow‐up research in Israel found no association between years in care and current functioning (Kohen‐Raz & Jonas, ; Schiff, Benbenishty, & Research Group: Mental Health and Well Being in Childhood and Adolescence, ; Weiner & Kupermintz, ). The social atmosphere and empirical evidence supported a shift toward collaborative family practices, which was back‐winded by parallel processes in other countries and by Israel's 1991 ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ().…”