The impact of transitions in residential care on young people's personal networks. A comparison of three transition types

Abstract

In residential child and youth care, transitions are associated with changes in various areas of young people's lives. One area concerns their personal networks. A personal network consists of the important people in one’s life and the relationships between these people. Personal net-works are important for social support, well-being and social belonging, for example. In residen-tial child and youth care, young people's personal networks are embedded in a dynamic social context caused by their own transitions, but also by constant changes in the residential care group. This makes it challenging for young people to form close relationships that last over time. Until now, transitions in residential care have often been studied individually instead of systemat-ically comparing their effects. In this study, we assume that different types of transitions have different effects on young people's personal networks. For example, when returning to the family of origin, the importance of family relationships is expected to increase in comparison to a transi-tion to independence. The current study examined the changes in young people's personal net-works that are related to three typical transitions in residential care: (1.) change of the residential care facility, (2.) family reunification, and (3.) leaving care to independence. The network chang-es were measured in terms of the composition, size and structural characteristics in a longitudi-nal design with two measurement points one year apart. Those young people who did not expe-rience a transition were used as the control group. The sample consisted of 415 young people who lived in residential care in the German-speaking part of Switzerland at least in the first wave of data collection. The data were analyzed using a series of linear regression models with change scores (t1-t0) as dependent variables while controlling for age and gender. The results show several significant changes in the personal networks that vary between the three transition types, including changes in network size, contact frequency, support, conflict, share of family members, share of friends, and share of professionals. The results provide information on how young people's personal networks can be prepared and supported depending on the upcoming transitions.