Measuring group care worker interventions in residential youth care

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Background By interacting with children, group care workers shape daily living environments to influence treatment. Current literature provides little knowledge about the content of youth residential care. Objective In this study, a questionnaire called the Group care worker Intervention Checklist was developed. Method Group care workers completed the questionnaires for 212 children placed in youth residential care in the Netherlands. Results Factor analyses revealed three constructs: controlling, warmth/support, and autonomy granting. Reliability of these scales proved to be good. Controlling was associated with Externalizing Behavior Problems while both Warmth/Support and Autonomy Granting were associated with Internalizing Behavior Problems. Conclusions These findings imply that group care worker interventions can be reliably measured and are related to child problem behavior.