NCJ Number
228113
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 33 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2009 Pages: 429-440
Date Published
July 2009
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined factors that are associated with problems in school functioning of children in rehabilitative and therapeutic residential care settings (RCSs) in Israel.
Abstract
Results show that a high proportion of children in RCSs are classified as having special education needs, and that most of them (about 62 percent) have at least one problem related to school functioning. Findings indicate that problems in school functioning are associated with several child factors (gender, length of stay at the RCS, court involvement, and problems in the quality of parent-child visitation) and setting factors (RCS structure, suitability of the physical environment to children's needs, after-school activities, and peer violence). Boys exhibited more problems in school functioning than did girls. Girls adjusted more positively to changing events and environments, and were more willing than boys to seek and accept both formal and informal help. The longer children stayed in one RCS, the fewer problems in school functioning they had. Overall, average length of stay of children in the RCS was found to be associated negatively with problems in school functioning, and had a considerable contribution to the variance explained between RCSs and both children's problems and school functioning. Children who were taken from home by court decree have more problems in school functioning and children with poor quality of visitation with their parents had more problems in school functioning. Data were collected from social worker's reports on 4,061 children between 6- and 18-years old in 21 therapeutic RCSs and 33 rehabilitative RCSs. Tables and references