Supporting Portuguese residential child care staff: An exploratory study with the Incredible Years Basic Parent Programme+

Abstract

Children in residential care have experienced high levels of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and behaviour control by staff is an issue of concern. This study evaluated a parenting intervention, Incredible Years Basic Parent Programme (IY), delivered in Portuguese short-term residential child care centres. In a non-randomised control trial, two groups of staff carers (27 carers) received the IY programme. Two other groups of carers (20 carers) didn't receive any form of intervention. Self-report measures were used to assess carers' child rearing practices, sense of competency, and depression levels. Measures were administered at baseline, 6-month and at 12-month follow-up. The findings indicate that each child care centre is a specific dynamic system and that the interventions didn't have the impact expected on some variables. Groups that didn't receive any intervention had some improvements on some variables. The main positive finding was the improvement at 12 months of empathic attitudes in one of the intervention groups and improved perceptions of the children's role in the other. In conclusion, the incorporation of a training programme such as the IY in child care placements can be a valuable intervention and at least part of the answer in enhancing worker development.

Analiza pojavnih oblika problema u ponašanju kod djece i mladih u institucijskom tretmanu Doma za odgoj djece i mladeži Karlovac

“…Svakodnevno se susreću s mladim osobama koje imaju široki spektar socijalnih, emocionalnih i ponašajnih poteškoća. Njihova misija je da pruže sigurnost, da odgovore na široki spektar potreba adolescenata i da rade na njihovoj resocijalizaciji i povratku u obitelj i zajednicu (Silva i Gaspar, 2014). Od ranije je poznato da je kvalitetan odnos odgajatelja s korisnikom važan preduvjet za uspješno provođenje tretmana.…”

The Effects of the Compassionate Mind Training for Caregivers on Professional Quality of Life and Mental Health: Outcomes from a Cluster Randomized Trial in Residential Youth Care Settings

“…Altogether, the above-mentioned demands reinforce the need to offer proper training to support caregivers in high-stress work environments, as it is the case of RYC (Barford & Whelton, 2010 ; McElvaney & Tatlow-Golden, 2016 ). Although some studies tried to overcome this need, some limitations still persist: (1) existing research showed that interventions didn’t had the expected impact (Donald, 2015 ; Silva & Gaspar, 2014 ; Vallejos et al, 2016 ); (2) when positive effects on stress and related syndromes were reached, those studies presented methodological limitations, such as small sample size, lack of randomization and/or absence of control group (Hidalgo et al, 2016 ; Schmid et al, 2020 ; Turner, 2017 ; van Gink et al, 2018 ); (3) programs were specifically tailored to babies homes (St. Petersburg–USA Orphanage Research Team, 2008 ). Some trauma-informed approaches also addressed staff mental health.…”

Webster‐Stratton Incredible Years Basic Parent Programme (IY) in child care placements: residential staff carers' satisfaction results

“…One of them focuses on self‐report measures to assess carers' child‐rearing practices, sense of competency and depression symptoms. Preliminary results suggest a positive impact in the improvement of residential carers' empathic attitudes and improved perceptions of the children's role in the intervention groups (Silva & Gaspar in press). The other paper addresses an observational procedure to assess carer–child interaction and a residential carer self‐report of children behaviour measures.…”