Barbosa-Ducharne, Maria

Campos, Joana

Dias, Pedro

Leal, Mariana

Martins, Ana

English

Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa

Book of Abstracts2nd to 5th October 2018EUSARF 2018 PORTOAll Children, All Families - Promoting Excellence in Child Welfare Research, Policy and PracticeEmotional and Behavioural Problems and Psychosocial Skillsin Adolescents in Residential CareThursday, 4th October @ 17:30: Poster Sessions & Coffee Break (Venue: Salão Nobre)Ms. Joana Campos (University of Porto), Prof. Maria Barbosa-Ducharne (University of Porto), Prof. Pedro Dias (CatholicUniversity of Portugal, Centre for Studies in Human Development, Faculty of Education and Psychology), Ms. Ana Martins(University of Porto), Ms. Mariana Leal (University of Porto), Ms. Sónia Rodrigues (University of Porto)Background: Several studies indicate a prevalence of mental health problems in adolescents who live in Resi-dential Care (RC) when compared to adolescents living at home. Thus, it is essential to identify the psychosocialskills of adolescents in RC, since these act as protective factors.Objectives:This study aims to compare adolescents in RC with adolescents from a national normative samplein relation to the frequency of mental health problems and psychosocial skills; identify differences related tothe gender of adolescents in RC, and explore the relationship between mental health problems and psychosocialskills.Method:443 adolescents (50.1% female), aged 11 to 18 (M = 15.42, SD = 2.33) from 45 RC centres in Portugal par-ticipated in this study. Data were collected using the Youth Self-Report, which is a self-report questionnaire foradolescents, 11 to 18 years old, allowing for the assessment of their own psychosocial skills and emotional andbehavioural problems in a standardized format. Sociodemographic data were collected from the Previous In-formation Survey (belonging to the Portuguese Comprehensive Quality Assessment System of Residential Care),which allows for sociodemographic, health and family information of adolescents in RC.Results:Results showed that adolescents in RC tend to have higher levels of mental health problems (particu-larly girls), lower academic performance, more engagement in sports and hobbies, and in a greater number ofdomestic chores (with higher incidence in girls) and a poorer social support network when compared to ado-lescents living at home. There were significant negative correlations between adolescents’ psychosocial skillsand mental health problems.. Skills such as sport and hobbies are negatively correlated with Rule-Breaking Be-haviour and Externalizing Problems, indicating that these types of activities promote higher rates of well-beingand resilience, reducing the probability of delinquent behaviours. Domestic chores were also negatively cor-related with Rule-Breaking Behavior, Aggressive Behavior, Externalizing Problems and Total Problems. Theseresults indicate that when adolescents are involved in “home” dynamics they tend to present less symptomatol-ogy. At asocial level, it was possible to observe that the integration of adolescents in community organizations,as well as their interaction with other adolescents, reduce Withdrawn/Depressed feelings, allowing for the nor-malization of adolescents’ life.Conclusions:It is important to detect socio-cognitive resources and the needs of adolescents early, allowingfor the implementation of socio-educational programmes of stimulation and self-enrichment. The results ofthis study highlight the importance of applying specific programmes to promote social skills as well as socialsupport networks in order to minimize adolescents’ emotional and behavioural problems. RC centres must betransformed into quality and safe environments for adolescents.626

Emotional and behavioural problems and psychosocial skills in adolescents in residential care

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Emotional and behavioural problems and psychosocial skills in adolescents in residential care

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Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa