Objective:
The outcome of institutional youth care for children is heavily debated. This multilevel meta-analysis aims to address the outcome of institutional youth care compared to non-institutional youth care for children of primary school age and early adolescence in economically developed countries. A gain of knowledge in this area may help the decision for referral of children to institutional youth care or other types of care (e.g., foster care or community-based care), and improve outcomes for children in youth care.
Methods:
Of 19 controlled studies (15.526 participants), 63 effect sizes of behaviour problems (externalizing, internalizing, and total), skills (social and cognitive) and delinquency were computed based on comparisons between institutional Evidence-Based Treatment (EBT), institutional Care As Usual (CAU), non-institutional EBT, and non-institutional CAU.
Results:
Institutional CAU showed a small-to-medium negative significant effect compared to non-institutional CAU (d = -0.342). Furthermore, children in institutional care showed slightly more delinquent behaviour compared to children in non-institutional care (d = -0.329). Significant moderating effects were also found for study design, year of publication and sex of the child.
Conclusions:
Children receiving non-institutional CAU (mostly foster care) had slightly better outcomes than children in institutional CAU (regular group care). No differences were found between institutional and non-institutional care when institutional treatment was evidence-based. More research is needed on the conditions that make established treatment methods work in institutional care for (young) children.
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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