Premium
A Comparative Study of Greek Children in Long‐term Residential Group Care and in Two‐parent Families: II. Possible Mediating Mechanisms
Author(s) -
Vorria Panyiota,
Wolkind Stephen,
Rutter Michael,
Pickles Andrew,
Hobsbaum Angela
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/1469-7610.00317
Subject(s) - psychology , residential care , developmental psychology , peer group , clinical psychology , demography , gerontology , medicine , sociology
Forty‐one children reared in group care were compared with 41 age‐ and sex‐matched family care children according to interview, questionnaire, and observation measures of behavioural and scholastic functioning. Individual differences in outcome within the group care sample were examined in relation to a range of possible risk/protective indicators. The strongest predictor of outcome proved to be the reason for admission into residential care, with the implication that the outcome was best for children who had experienced stable, harmonious family relationships in their early years. The risk and protective effects applied to both the children's behaviour and scholastic attainments but, although the two were intercorrelated, neither accounted for the other. All subgroups of children in institutional care failed to show a lack of confiding peer relationships, with the pattern of findings suggesting that this stemmed from some aspect of experiences (possibly involving peer relationships) during residential care, as well as from discontinuity in caregiving during the early years.