Comparing the Social Images of Youth In and Out of Residential Care

Margarida Vaz Garrido,Diniz Lopes,Maria Manuela Calheiros,Joana Nunes Patrício

doi:10.1002/casp.2273

Abstract

AbstractThe literature indicates that youths in residential care have been associated with negative social images. However, there have been few studies focused on these social images, specifically, comparing them with the images of youths in normative contexts. To address this issue, we conducted two studies comparing the social images people have about youths in residential care to those they hold about youths living out of care. Both studies were conducted in Portugal: Study 1 explores these images through an open‐ended questionnaire; Study 2 examines these images with a quantitative instrument. Overall, the results indicate that the perception about youths in residential care was more negative than the perception about youths out of care. Additionally, the first study probed the effect of socioeconomic status of the youths on the social images held about them and the second examined the role of the respondents' professional contact with youth in care population on these social images. The implications of the social images people have about youth in residential care for the research and intervention towards the wellbeing of this population are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Highlights

Residential care aims at ensuring the safety, wellbeing and integral development of children and youths that were at risk in their family context
The results obtained indicate that youths in residential care were associated with a negative social image at several different levels, which is consistent with the image that has emerged in previous studies (e.g., Arpini, 2003; Ibrahim, & Howe, 2011; Kuznetsova, 2005)
The results suggested that the social image of youths in residential care was more negative than the image of youth living with their families, and this difference was evident regarding internalized problems and on the lack of affection received from other people

Summary

Introduction

Residential care aims at ensuring the safety, wellbeing and integral development of children and youths that were at risk in their family context. Social images are shared ideas about groups or societies, which exist without objective evidence of their veracity (Corsini, 1999) These social images may have a negative impact on the construction of identity and wellbeing of their targets, in this case, youths in care (Arpini, 2003; Kools, 1997). According to Kools (1997), in the context of residential care, the stereotypes that people have about the youths in care constitute a determinant factor for the youths’ identity construction According to this view, youths in care develop a negative identity due to three main components: the institutional structure, the diminished status of the children/youths in out-of-home care, and the stereotypes about them. In the residential care context there has been evidence that feelings of stigmatization were associated with emotional and behavioral problems (Simsek, Erol, Öztop, & Münir, 2007)

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