“OTHERWISE I MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO COPE AT ALL”: A RESEARCH PROJECT ON THE RESIDENTIAL CARE OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Today, residential care for children and adolescents is under scrutiny to a far greater degree than was the case only 20 years ago. Psychosocial trauma approaches — especially in the German-speaking countries — have become far more widespread over the past few years. But how do they in fact work? This was the subject of a recent Austrian research project that looked for “examples of best practice” in a mixed-methods study. The quantitative part of the study comprised symptom-oriented questionnaires. Within the qualitative part of the study semi-structured interviews as well as group discussion were conducted. This article reflects some specific results of the study in the light of theoretical aspects of the psychosocial trauma approach; in Germany, this is also called the “trauma-pedagogical approach”