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Utilizing professional relationships with at-risk children

July 2024
Pedagogia Social Revista Interuniversitaria

DOI:10.7179/PSRI_2024.45.09

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CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Authors:

Bohdana Richterová

University of Ostrava

Hana Kubíčková

University of Ostrava

A child can be considered at risk if their basic needs or not met or they are in danger of not having these needs met. Highly abnormal living conditions can directly harm personal development, learning, and integration into society. Working with at-risk children requires various educational approaches whose successful implementation depends greatly on the expertise of the personnel involved. This work aims to evaluate the use of relationship and educators’ understanding of it in interventions. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 teaching staff1 who work with children2 in various environments and organizations and subsequently analysed using open coding followed by thematic analysis. Interviews were conducted with eight children’s home educators, eight counsellors and therapists, and ten elementary school teachers. Significant aspects of the understanding and use of relationship-building were identified which, while differing based on the focus of the contributors, demonstrated that relationship-building was the common denominator in all successful interventions in education and re-education.

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Utilizing professional relationships with at-risk children

Utilizando relaciones profesionales con niños y niñas en situación de riesgo

Utilizando relacionamentos proﬁssionais com crianças em perigo

Verónika ŠTENCLOVÁ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5964-5888

Bohdana RICHTEROVÁ https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5372-4465

Hana KUBÍČKOVÁ https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7755-2709

University of Ostrava

Received date: 15.

.2023

Reviewed date: 16.

.2023

Accepted date: 22.

.2024

CONTACT WITH THE AUTHORS

Veronika Štenclová: Faculty of Education, University of Ostrava; Fráni Šrámka 3, 709 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic. E-mail address:

veronika.stenclova@osu.cz

KEYWORDS:

Educational

principles;

helping relationship;

child at risk;

pedagogical

intervention;

qualitative research

ABSTRACT: A child can be considered at risk if their basic needs or not met or they are in

danger of not having these needs met. Highly abnormal living conditions can directly harm

personal development, learning, and integration into society. Working with at-risk children

requires various educational approaches whose successful implementation depends

greatly on the expertise of the personnel involved. This work aims to evaluate the use of

relationship and educators’ understanding of it in interventions. To this end, semi-structured

interviews were conducted with 26 teaching staﬀ1 who work with children2 in various

environments and organizations and subsequently analysed using open coding followed by

thematic analysis. Interviews were conducted with eight children’s home educators, eight

counsellors and therapists, and ten elementary school teachers. Signiﬁcant aspects of the

understanding and use of relationship-building were identiﬁed which, while diﬀering based

on the focus of the contributors, demonstrated that relationship-building was the common

denominator in all successful interventions in education and re-education.

PALABRAS CLAVE:

Principios

educativos;

relación de ayuda;

niño en situación de

riesgo;

intervención

educativa;

investigación

cualitativa

RESUMEN: Se puede considerar que un niño o una niña está en situación de riesgo si

sus necesidades básicas no están cubiertas o corren el riesgo de no estarlo. Su entorno o

condiciones se desvían tanto de la norma que pueden perjudicar directamente su desarrollo,

educación e integración en la sociedad. Por lo tanto, se utiliza una serie de procedimientos

pedagógicos especíﬁcos cuando se trabaja con niños y niñas en situación de riesgo y se

hace gran hincapié en la experiencia del personal. Este documento presenta los resultados

de un análisis secundario de entrevistas semiestructuradas con 26 miembros del personal

educativo que trabajan con estos niños y niñas en diversos entornos y organizaciones. El

objetivo del análisis es presentar el uso de la relación y la comprensión que el personal

educativo tiene de ella en las intervenciones. Para ello, se utilizaron procedimientos

analíticos de codiﬁcación abierta y posterior análisis temático. La entrevista se realizó a

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ocho educadores y educadoras de un hogar infantil, ocho trabajadores y trabajadoras de

orientación y terapia y diez profesores y profesoras de la escuela primaria. Se identiﬁcaron

aspectos signiﬁcativos de la comprensión y el uso de la creación de relaciones, que por un

lado variaban según el enfoque de los informantes. Por otro lado, surgió el denominador

común de la creación de relaciones como condición para el éxito de todas las intervenciones

en los procesos educativos y reeducativos.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE:

Princípios de

educação;

relacionamento que

ajuda;

criança em perigo;

intervenção

pedagógica;

pesquisa qualitativa

RESUMO: Uma criança com insatisfação das necessidades básicas dela ou ameaçada de

tal insatisfação pode ser considerada uma criança em perigo. O seu ambiente de vida

ou condições de vida encontram-se de tal maneira desviadas do normal que podem

imediatamente afetar o seu desenvolvimento, a sua educação e inserção na sociedade.

Por isso utiliza-se uma gama de métodos pedagógicos especíﬁcos no trabalho com crianças

em perigo e há aqui uma grande acentuação da proﬁssionalidade dos empregados e das

empregadas. Esta contribuição apresenta a saída de uma análise secundária de entrevistas

semiestruturadas com 26 empregados e empregadas pedagógicos que trabalham com essas

crianças em diversos ambientes e diversas organizações. É objetivo desta análise apresentar

a utilização do relacionamento e seu entendimento por pedagogos e pedagogas no âmbito

das intervenções. A este propósito foram aproveitados procedimentos analíticos de

codiﬁcação aberta e de subsequente análise temática. As entrevistas foram levadas a cabo

com oito educadores e educadoras de orfanato, oito consultores e consultoras,terapeutas

e dez pedagogos e pedagogas de escola básica. Foram identiﬁcados aspetos signiﬁcativos

de entendimento e aproveitamento da ediﬁcação de um relacionamento que por um lado

divergiam em virtude da orientação dos informantes. Por outro lado mostrou-se como

um denominador comum a ediﬁcação do relacionamento como condição de todas as

intervenções bem sucedidas nos processos educativos e reeducativos.

Introduction

According to Rauh (2005), children are deﬁned

as at-risk if under the age of 18 and their natural

development is threatened. These are children

exposed to neglect and abuse, who grow up in

broken homes or in inadequate conditions, are

delinquent or drug addicts, are refugees, are

addicted to the Internet, grow up in families with

many children, live on the streets or are exploited

for work (Erol & Savas, 2022).

Children living with psychological stress and a

disordered home life are more likely to be suﬀering

from a wide range of emotional-, cognitive– and

conative disorders.

Inconsistencies and deﬁciencies in social

interaction are characterised by a strong desire

to conform, and diﬃculty establishing strong

interpersonal relationships. Compared to their

peers who have formed a quality bond with their

signiﬁcant other, children who are socially insecure

have problems establishing and maintaining long-

term relationships, are generally less socially

oriented, less empathetic, and less popular in

the group. These children typically exhibit poor

communication skills (i.e., limited vocabulary and

lack of spontaneity in speech) and are unable or

unwilling to talk about their feelings and express

their wishes. They tend to be punishment– and

reward-oriented, as reﬂected in their motivation

and tendency to follow established rules (cf.

Kubíčková, 2020).

If these children are not provided with help and

support, there is a high risk of neuropsychiatric

disorders and social problems. Miruktamova and

Makhamatov (2020) describe several general

rules that should be followed when working with

at-risk children; ﬁrstly, the authors emphasize the

great responsibility of the educator when drawing

conclusions about a student; the student’s fate is

generally in the hands of the educator. Therefore,

any appraisal of the situation (for example, about

the need to involve additional specialists) should

be carefully validated with diagnostic work. It is

also necessary for teachers to pay consideration

to not only how they communicate with children,

but also their parents and colleagues. At the

same time, parents and other teachers or workers

should receive clear and precise guidance on how

to work with a child at risk. Finally, it is necessary

to pay special attention to the speciﬁcs of the

family situation. Working with the family of a

child at risk is often a more eﬀective means of

psychoprophylaxis than working with a group

of pupils and teachers. Compliance with these

conditions allows us to help the child and provide

the tools to compensate for their diﬃculties.

At-risk children themselves consider

factors such as emotional support, acceptance,

authenticity, a safe and structured environment,

a strong and trustworthy relationship with

the therapist and empowerment in treatment

decisions to be essential for positive treatment

outcomes (cf. Frauenholtz & Menderhall, 2020;

Loughead et al., 2018).

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When working with at-risk children, education

and re-education can be broadly deﬁned as any

pedagogical or other professional intervention

aiming to beneﬁt and develop the child in question

(cf. Bučilová Kadlecová et al., 2010).

Given the above-mentioned personality

characteristics of at-risk children, the aim of this

paper is to present mutual relationships as an

important factor in working with at-risk children,

in both pedagogical and therapeutic contexts.

Primary interpersonal relationships can

be deﬁned as a longer-term connection with

an emotional bond and a certain degree of

responsibility. One can also speak of secondary

interpersonal relationships, which can be

characterized as temporary, superﬁcial and non-

committal (Hartl & Hartlová, 2015). In professional

work with vulnerable children, it is necessary to

focus on building a relationship based on trust:

only when this is established is it possible to deal

with the situations which vulnerable children may

ﬁnd themselves in (Lefevre et al., 2017). Trust is

inherently relational; it is generally considered

to be a critical factor in fostering the spirit of

cooperation necessary for successful pedagogical

and therapeutic intervention.

While mutual relationships are described as key

to interventions and integral to the professional

identity and role of social workers and therapists

(Rollins, 2020), building relationships in the school

context is rather neglected – much more emphasis

is placed on teaching methods and the ability to

impart new knowledge and skills. However, these

two ﬁelds are closely related since the quality of

the teacher-student relationship is crucial to the

learning process (Downer et al., 2010; Gordon &

Burch, 2003).

Several studies discuss the importance of

the relationship between teachers and students

(e.g., Wubbels et al., 2015; Cornelius-White, 2007;

Hamre & Pianta, 2001;). According to theoretical

sources, a signiﬁcant portion of teachers

describes the endeavor to establish the best

possible relationship with students as a moral duty

of educators (Hansen, 1998; 2001). Research has

shown that emotional investment in the teacher-

student relationships contributes to the long-term

engagement of teachers and their interest in the

teaching profession and its development (Gu, 2014;

Sammons et al., 2007). Frelin (2010) describes that

the speciﬁcity of the teacher-student relationship

is not just about having a positive relationship but

one that has an educational impact. According to

Firestone and Pennell (1993), a positive teacher-

student relationship helps reduce the rate of

premature student dropout. In recent years,

increased workload due to non-personal tasks,

such as increased administrative duties, has

diverted teachers from investing in relationships

with students, resulting in decreased levels

of their engagement and personal interest in

educating students (Frelin & Fransson, 2017).

Based on research, a model comprising four

signiﬁcant components of the teacher-student

relationship was created (Frelin & Fransson, 2017).

The authors describe a moral impulse on the

teacher’s side as the entry into the relationship,

initiating a time cycle of relationship formation.

During the relationship-building process, teachers

address various dilemmas. Resolving these

dilemmas further advances them, boosts their

self-conﬁdence, opens up opportunities for

new activities and rewards, and has a signiﬁcant

impact on their self-esteem. As a condition for

engagement and establishing a positive teacher-

student relationship, the need for the teacher’s

enduring belief that they can change students’

lives and educational outcomes is evident (cf.

Sammons et al., 2007).

Several educational studies have established

that strong teacher-student relationships

positively inﬂuence cognitive and social-emotional

outcomes (e.g., Collins et al., 2017; Jones &

Doolittle, 2017; McKinnon et al., 2018; Parmenter

& Robertson, 2022; Tosto et al., 2016).

Davies (2019) found that when children have

limited trust in school staﬀ, they keep their

family and other problems to themselves. In such

situations, only ad hoc and superﬁcial solutions

can be provided. Children who belong to families

under the remit of social care workers tend to

especially wary in their relationships with other

professionals. It should be noted that relationships

are dynamic processes that are embedded in the

wider interactions that children have with family,

peers, and teachers. All of these areas contribute to

shaping their relational schema (Wang et al., 2013).

It is therefore evident that the family environment

will contribute to the quality of relationships with

schoolteachers. Davies (2019) further emphasizes

that, given that school is children’s primary setting

for contact with professional adults and may be

children’s only regular contact with adults outside

the family, it is absolutely essential to have trusted

adults in school who will be able to establish a

relationship with the child (Davies, 2019). This

is conﬁrmed by other studies which show that

teacher-student closeness acts as a protective

factor against depression, externalizing disorders

in students with adverse parent-child relationships,

and other psychosocial problems (Olivier &

Archambault, 2017; Wang et al., 2013).

At-risk children are often distrustful and

prejudiced against authority ﬁgures and exhibit

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various forms of risky behaviour thus making it

diﬃcult for teachers to form a close relationship

with them (Prewett et al., 2018). Murray and

Zvoch’s 2010 study conﬁrmed that children

categorized as ‘at-risk’ in our deﬁnition reported

less trusting relationships with teachers, while

their teachers described being in conﬂict with

them more frequently compared to their peers.

Various training and other programmes are being

introduced to support teachers in this area. One of

these, for example, is the Chicago School Readiness

Project (CSRP). Begun in 2003, this randomized

trial provided targeted and timely intervention for

preschool children from socially deprived areas

and aimed to improve their chances of academic

success. It is important to state that the project

drew from research into teacher-child relationships,

the emotional climate in the classroom, and

children’s ability to manage and interpret emotions,

all of which are critical to academic outcomes

(Raver et al., 2007). The program involved two

programmes of intervention. In the ﬁrst, teachers

were provided with professional and personal

development training in the form of classroom

management tactics aimed at improving teacher-

child relationships and interactions. The second

focused on feedback and ongoing mentoring in

these strategies by a mental health professional

(Jones et al., 2019). As this is a longitudinal study,

researchers are currently following children from

the original cohort to determine the project’s

impact on academic success, participation in

tertiary education, and career readiness (Gandhi

et al., 2020; McCoy et al., 2019; Watts et al., 2020;

Watts et al., 2018).

Prosocial behaviour on the part of teachers

is another important mechanism that supports

positive and harmonious teacher-student

relationships (Bergin, 2018; Luckner & Pianta,

2011; Spivak & Farran, 2012). Close teacher-child

relationships are characterized by easy and

open communication, a sense of warmth and

understanding, and mutual aﬀection (McKinnon

et al., 2018). It is also interesting to note that close

teacher-student relationships are associated with

not only students’ mental well-being but also the

teachers’ (Corbin et al., 2019).

In children’s education, however, the question

often arises: where is the boundary between a

professional and personal relationship? What

kind of relationship hurts and hinders rather

than helping and healing? The available literature

suggests that a positive professional-client

relationship (be that child or adult) has a positive

impact beyond the scope of specialist knowledge

alone (Kopřiva, 2016; Nerantzi et al., 2021).

This fact has been rediscovered in connection

with the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent

implementation of online learning, which has

complicated the formation and development of

teacher-student relationships (Armellini & De

Stefani, 2016; Bozkurt et al., 2020).

Regarding the professionals involved, for

whom establishing a relationship is an important

attribute of their work, there may be two disruptive

tendencies at play. The ﬁrst is a need for excessive

control, which prevents the development of the

child’s autonomy. This is often described, for

example, in the teaching profession. The other,

described by Kopřiva (2016) in terms of the self-

sacriﬁce of the worker, whose excessive help

weakens the child and, in some cases, creates

an unhealthy dependence on the worker. One

condition for creating a “healing” relationship with

a child is understanding the child by attuning to

their vision and experience of the world.

However, creating a strong relationship with

vulnerable children is not an easy task; these

individuals have repeatedly experienced rejection,

criticism and moralizing by close relatives or even

specialists. Convincing children who have been

hurt so many times that we truly have their best

interests at heart succeeds with concrete actions

that go beyond conventional eﬀorts (cf. Kaim &

Romi, 2015). It is essential to maintain contact

and not let the child out of sight, even if he

gives the impression that he is not interested (cf.

Castonguay, 1993).

In contrast, the therapeutic relationship is a

central component of every therapeutic process

and is considered a fundamental condition of

the process. This relationship represents the

connection and bond between the client and the

therapist, involving feelings, attitudes, and ways

of expressing them (Gelso & Carter, 1985). The

therapeutic relationship has numerous dimensions

and types related to the phase of the therapy

process and the focus of the psychotherapeutic

approach to which the therapist subscribes. We

can speak of attachment, projection, transference,

the need for boundaries, creating a safe haven in

times of distress, and the emotional availability

of the therapist to the client (Obegi, 2008). In

the case of the therapist-client relationship, we

refer to it more as an ‘attachment’ rather than a

‘commitment,’ which is a closer description of

the teacher-student relationship. Relationship is

a well-researched therapeutic component that

has been shown to contribute signiﬁcantly to

treatment outcomes regardless of the speciﬁc

type of therapy used (e.g., Coyne, 2019; Mallonee

et al., 2022; Norcross & Wampold, 2011; O ‘Connor

et al., 2019; Tschuschke et al., 2021; Tschuschke et

al., 2020; Whittingham & Werbart et al., 2018).

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Just as in, for example, social work, building

a quality relationship in therapy depends on

transparency, mutual trust, respect and interest

in the client (cf. Rollins, 2020). An example of a

comprehensive approach is Glasser’s reality

therapy, which was developed to improve

success rates in the prevention of delinquency

(cf. McWhirter & Al., 2013). The core principles

of reality therapy are basic needs, responsibility,

and bonding. The aim of this approach is to enable

clients to evaluate their behaviour and accept

responsibility for it based on the ability to satisfy

their basic needs in a realistic way. The basic

needs in this concept are the need to love and

be loved, and the need to respect oneself and

others. To fulﬁl these needs, it is essential that the

client is in a close personal relationship with one

or two people. The stated principles lead to three

basic components of reality therapy: (1) establish

a deep relationship with the client, (2) reject

the client’s behaviour, which is unrealistic and

irresponsible, while still accepting the client and

accompanying them through life, and (3) gradually

teach the client more responsible and mature

ways of satisfying needs in accordance with

reality. Through these three basic components,

the clients learn to regulate, accept, and value

themselves (cf. McWhirter & Al., 2013).

In relationship-based work with at-risk children,

relationship can be used as a means to design

interventions that increase clients’ exposure

to relationships that are safe and responsive

for them, and thereby promote an emotionally

corrective experience.

Finally, in our long-term pedagogical and

therapeutic experience there have been

debates over the use of some psychotherapeutic

approaches in education. Psychotherapy has

its opponents as an intervention modality in

education and is not yet a component of Czech

school legislation. I consider that education can be

inspired by psychotherapy, where relationships are

the basis of its theory and practice, as described

by, for example, Barcalová et al. (2022). Among

other things, the authors consider it a given that

children can ﬂourish only with an authority ﬁgure

who is truthful, sensitive to their needs, emotional

expressions and personality traits, and who is

able to accept the child for who they are with

understanding and respect.

1. Rationale and Objectives

Multidisciplinary cooperation in some areas of

social reality is proving to be necessary. At the

end of 2021, researchers from the Faculty of

Education and the Faculty of Social Studies began

collaboration to carry out qualitative research in

the areas of social work and education in work

with vulnerable children in various settings.

Analysis of the results showed that the teacher–

or therapist-child relationship was one of the

most signiﬁcant factors. This became the impetus

for the secondary analysis presented in this text.

The secondary analysis presents the role of the

relationship in interventions and its understanding

by educators.

2. Methodology

Materials and methods

Primary qualitative research into the work with

vulnerable children in various environments and

its results was carried out through semi-structured

interviews. The interviews had the character of a

stimulus interview with the aim of giving maximum

space for the contributors’ voices. The interview

was structured into ﬁve areas: (1) aims when

working with vulnerable children, (2) interventions

used by the specialists involved, (3) techniques

and methods, (4) cooperation with other

individuals and organizations, and (5) perceived

and expected results.

As part of the secondary analysis, the entire

transcribed interview was analysed with regard

to contributors’ statements on the topic of the

relationship.

Sample

Semi-structured interviews were managed by 3

academics (authors of the paper) and conducted

with 26 specialists who acted as contributors

through their work with at-risk children. The

sample consisted of 8 counsellors (TP1-TP8); 10

primary school staﬀ (PP1-PP10) comprising 5

educational consultants, 3 social pedagogues,

1 special needs teacher and 1 prevention

methodologist; and 8 pedagogues from a

children’s home (VP1-VP8) comprising 1 director

and 7 educators. The youngest contributor was 29

years old, the oldest 69. There were 7 men and

19 women among the teachers. All contributors

mentioned have a pedagogical education and

in the performance of their profession they use

pedagogical procedures depending on the context

of the work and the target group. However, some

of them also have a therapeutic education, and

therapeutic approaches are also used, especially

by counsellors, in performing their work.

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Procedure

Before interviews were arranged, consent was

obtained by telephone or in person with the

selected contributor. The interviews typically

took place mainly in the contributor’s workplace

and lasted between 45 and 60 minutes. Informed

consent was also given to make audio recordings

of the interviews, at which time they were also

informed of the anonymized data collection and

the expected publication of interview results.

Subsequently, a verbatim transcription of the

audio recordings was made. Participation in the

research survey was voluntary. Interviews were

conducted in accordance with the APA Code

of Ethics (2016) and time and attention was paid

to establish a sense of safety throughout the

interviews; The participants were told at the

beginning of the interview what the questions

would be about and how the interview would

proceed. Participants were also given the

opportunity to ask the researchers their own

questions, or to refuse to answer the questions.

The interview style was simple, conversational,

and mainly open-ended questions were used,

while also paying attention to cultural diﬀerences.

Analysis

The obtained information was transcribed and

subjected to data analysis, using Thematic

Analysis, which helps capture the process of

identifying patterns or themes within qualitative

data. Thematic Analysis is considered more a

method than a methodology (Braun & Clarke,

2006). The aim of Thematic Analysis is to

identify themes (patterns) that are important or

interesting and to use these themes to address

research or express a particular issue. Although

there are several ways to conduct this analysis,

we adhered to the six-step framework (Braun &

Clarke, op.cit.).

In the ﬁrst step, we read and re-read all the

transcribed interviews to become well-acquainted

with our data. During this process, we made initial

notes about our ﬁrst impressions. In the second

phase, we performed open coding, meaning we

did not have predeﬁned codes but used our own.

Coding helped us reduce the data into smaller

meaningful units. We did not code every piece

of text, only passages related to the information

for the purpose of this article. We examined the

generated codes and grouped semantically similar

ones under preliminary themes in the fourth

step. In this step, we reviewed and modiﬁed

these themes. We considered whether the data

associated with each theme aligned and assessed

whether the themes worked in the context of the

overall data. In the penultimate step, we reﬁned

and identiﬁed the themes, elaborated on what the

themes were about, how they were related, and

how they inﬂuenced each other, etc. The ﬁnal step

was writing this article.

Thematic analysis allows us to uncover

what research contributors consider important

and enables the description of the research

participant’s reality through their own spoken

or written expression. This method is close to

grounded theory but keeps the story intact and

often uses previous theoretical concepts. During

analysis and subsequent interpretation of the

data, the researcher can focus on similarities

or diﬀerences in the recurring patterns found

(Lochmiller, 2021).

Categories were created as a result of

discussion between researchers and were

described in relation to the contexts and

environment in which the contributors operate.

Finally, the researchers identiﬁed three themes

that were common to all types of educators.

Limitations of the study

The output of this secondary analysis intends to

draw attention to the diversity of perspective of

the use of relationship by educators in diﬀerent

environments and contexts. The limit of the study

is the failure to explore other important factors

including contributors’ personalities, values, and

additional education. These limitations could

have been addressed by conducting follow-up

interviews with the contributors involved and help

clarify some of the information from the primary

interviews.

3. Results

Based on the analysis, three topics emerge for

discussion. Firstly, what helps to build a relationship

with a child in practice? Secondly, what obstacles

appear when building a relationship? Finally,

manifest and latent expression of the need

for a relationship with the child for successful

interventions will be considered. In the following

text, the individual topics are presented in more

detail and reinforced with verbatim transcriptions

of the statements of selected contributors.

What helps to build a relationship with a child

in practice?

Building a mutual relationship is not a short-term

matter; it is a step-by-step process that depends

on personal qualities and skills in addition to

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specialist knowledge. If the contributors talked

about the need to build a relationship with a child

at risk, they reﬂected on what had worked for

them in practice. There was a recognition that this

was not restricted to relationship-building with

the child, their family and peer group, but also

involved cooperation and relationship-building

with colleagues and other professionals in their

milieu. Interview analysis revealed the varying

extent to which contacts with specialists outside

the school were made, ranging from superﬁcial

(“I know the name of the person to contact”) to

intense (“I know what he is good at and where

we can support each child and how we can

agree on that”). In a therapeutic environment,

multidisciplinary cooperation is perceived as

necessary in matters of comprehensive care for

boys and girls. at risk In this respect however,

signiﬁcant limits still prevail, speciﬁcally the lack

of cohesion and continuity of care.

Building a relationship with parents in

connection with compulsory school attendance is

inﬂuenced among other things, by the accepted

scope of the work of pedagogues. While teachers

are not expected to have contact with parents other

than on school premises, social pedagogues visit

families in the pupil’s extracurricular environment

as a regular part of their work (AVSP, 2020).

Educators in the school environment describe that

their investment in building a relationship with the

family helps them become familiar with the normal

life of the child in the family. In this way, they

have a deeper understanding of the family issues

(e.g., housing, domestic conﬂicts, the overriding

economic situation) which have a negative impact

on the pupil’s performance at school. If the parent-

teacher relationship is deepened, the parents allow

the educator to advise or help them. One of the

social pedagogues described a situation where

she helped with the family budget and assisted

in planning the children’s schedule for leisure

activities or homework. Building a relationship,

according to educators, involves regular contact and

sharing everyday things, not just solving children’s

problems. Educators described drinking tea or

coﬀee together, talking about politics or ordinary

things related to the place where they live as a

matter of course. In the case of a social pedagogue,

there was also an exceptional case of common

dining and invitations to family lunches in a socially

excluded neighbourhood. They repeatedly stated

that in order to understand the child and establish

a trusting relationship, it is important to understand

the situation in the family. The importance of the

relationship with the children’s family also appeared

among the contributors from among the educators

in children’s homes. In the Czech Republic, girls and

boys are most often placed in children’s homes due

to dysfunctional home life. Nevertheless, the aim

is to continue to work holistically with the entire

family, which, according to contributors, leads to

more eﬀective pedagogical work with children.

Mutual conversations about the family situation

have proven eﬀective in practice, often leading

to education on parenting skills and strengthened

parent-child and child-teacher relationships.

In this situation, the child will feel the uniﬁed

educational action of parents and teachers, which

will strengthen the sense of security, safety and

understanding of the situation. If we work with a

child at risk, working with his family is a completely

natural process, not only as a partner in the search

for eﬀective solutions on behalf of the child, but

often as a client. If the boy or girl with whom we

are trying to be in a professional relationship has

speciﬁc needs, it is very likely that the parent also

has speciﬁc needs and must be treated accordingly:

“The fact that the biological parent is involved in

their life even though they are not with them is of

great importance to those children.” (VP3)

Educators also described their experience

with the qualities and activities which help them

directly in building a relationship with the child.

If they showed an interest in the child in the

school environment, which the child perceived,

it allowed them to deepen their teacher-boy or

girl relationship. Again, they communicated, as

with the relationship with the children’s parents,

that it is necessary to nurture this relationship

not only when solving problems, but in ordinary

everyday activities. It is important to know, for

example, when the child’s birthday is, how many

siblings he has, what is celebrated in the family

and what is not. If they did not teach the child,

they stated that it is good to be familiar with the

teaching and the class to which the child belongs.

Spending free time together was considered

very important by the pedagogues. Convincing

a vulnerable child and his family that our interest

is real is a rather diﬃcult task. In addition, it

also helps to express that we remember what

he tells us about himself, his strengths, his likes,

his opinions, that we hear his wishes and try to

fulﬁl them. However, our presence and practical

actions seem to be the most eﬀective when a

child ﬁnds himself in a diﬃcult situation. From a

personal perspective, it was taken as a sign that

the relationship was developing positively that

the child had suﬃcient trust to express that he

doesn’t want problems, he just doesn’t know how

to solve them. Risky behaviour is perceived as

a consequence of stress and trauma in the lives

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of girls and boys, not a deliberate violation of

established norms. They perceived the need for

a mutually respectful relationship with patience

as key. They appreciated being able to laugh and

joke with the child. In a therapeutic relationship

with the child at risk, great emphasis is placed on

the authenticity and truthfulness of the facilitator.

In addition, contributors expressed the need to be

open, accommodating and to like their profession.

“They really appreciate it when you make time for

them, sit down with them, discuss what troubles them

or what makes them happy, listen to them.” (VP5)

In the school environment, the topic of personal

development of the educators themselves arose

only rarely. Two contributors, however, were

strongly positively inﬂuenced in this respect:

after taking part in supervision and therapeutic

education which helped them to better navigate

their lives, they felt more conﬁdent working with

vulnerable children. In institutional education,

educators are aware of their importance as a role

model who can help compensate for children’s

negative experiences with adults. For this reason,

they mentioned the risk of creating assumptions,

which, according to them, are an obstacle to

building relationships. They try to correct these

assumptions mainly through mutual interviews

within the organization and at educational

events. The importance of personal growth is

also reﬂected in the statements of counsellors in

the form of regular interviews and supervisions,

which, for example, reveal doubts as a natural

part of professional and personal development.

The child needs to get to know the specialist; he

needs to establish that he can trust this authority

ﬁgure, he needs to be assured that they are not

just another adult trying to manipulate him. It is

therefore necessary to move slowly, carefully,

and respectfully in the child’s living space. When

establishing a relationship, it helps how the experts

perceive the child’s problems, his needs, and the

possibilities of intervention. They perceive their

clients as injured children; abnormal behaviour is

primarily caused by injuries in the family. Problems

are attributed to stressful situations and are not

the fault of the child. Acceptance of the child and

everything that belongs to him is also related to

the way the professional thinks about the child: the

child’s personality is not judged, only the behaviour

is deemed inappropriate. Working with a child in

crisis also places great demands on the expertise

and experience of the intervening professional.

The statements of our contributors show that in

cooperation with professional procedures, it is

essential to give the girls and boys your time and

presence; in short, just to be with the child, to be

there for him without expectations. Put aside for

a while all the problems associated with the child

and aspirations to improve his behaviour and just

connect with the child, perceive him here and now

with all his needs. The often-mentioned genuine

interest in the child, which is a good requisite for a

quality relationship, can be demonstrated with help

in non-standard situations, when a child is in need.

Particularly eﬀective are the speciﬁc actions

by which the expert sometimes gets beyond

the boundaries of his comfort zone, beyond

the boundaries of his oﬃce and working hours.

It also follows from the practice of therapists

that forgiveness plays an important role in

establishing and maintaining a relationship. A

common symptom of a child at risk is a failure

to follow established rules and failure to meet

expectations. It is necessary to approach children

and their families proactively, to go beyond the

established ways of working, to meet them and

repeatedly oﬀer opportunities for cooperation.

Another phenomenon that a child usually does

not encounter is the fact that someone perceives

his words as important. This is not a blind trust in

everything the boy or girl says, but rather that it is

essential to recognise and appreciate his view of

the situation.

Regarding the various specialists and

organizations involved, mutual cooperation and

consistency in the approach to the child and his

family is an important supporting factor for quality

and, to a certain extent, eﬀective work.

“Acceptance is important, don’t judge, try to

approach authentically, so with those children it’s

doubly so, also no, the evaluation, I’d say that’s the

very last thing a person should do, what a person

should do at work with children.” (TP8)

What obstacles appear in practice when

building a relationship?

Complications when establishing a relationship

can generally be encountered in three areas.

The ﬁrst is the client’s absence or unavailability.

It is often very diﬃcult for children and their

families to keep appointments; in the best case

they cancel with an apology, in the worst case

they don’t answer at all. On one hand this could

simply be attributed to a reduced awareness of

the need for intervention, on the other it could

be the cumulative burden of various stress factors

meaning that paradoxically, families no longer

have the time or energy to constantly deal with

the problem. Therapists try to view the client’s

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unavailability as an expected phenomenon in

relation to their life situation.

Educators considered what helps them

develop a relationship with a child, but also what

hinders it and what obstacles appear in practice

when building a relationship. Parents were more

likely to be uncommunicative than the children.

The risk prevention methodologist described his

experience with a boy with whom he was unable

to establish contact. In the ninth grade the family

moved and the boy changed schools. In his new

class he did not make contact with anyone. Some

time passed before the prevention methodologist

discovered that the boy’s lack of interest was

connected, among other things, to the use of

drugs, which aﬀected his ability to communicate

and establish relationships.

In institutional education, teachers often

encounter indiﬀerence on the part of children

and their families. Educators described it as

indiﬀerence to any interaction. Given the reasons

for placing girls and boys in children’s homes (drug

addiction, abuse, material and emotional neglect,

homelessness, crime, etc.), we can only imagine

what experiences children bring with them to

institutional education. Children with negative

experience of authority ﬁgures may show fear

of establishing contact with the teacher, at other

times indiﬀerence, or even increased aggression.

This brings us to another obstacle to

establishing a relationship with children, which

is their psychological condition and its severity

as determined by experts. This could include

children with psychiatric diagnoses, their increased

aggression, and in some cases also their medication.

Children could be withdrawn and uncommunicative

due to poor mental health, which, especially in

institutional education, manifests, for example,

as reduced intellect, emotional ﬂatness, impaired

self-awareness of one’s own emotions and in the

motivation of one’s own behaviour.

Boys and girls who reach puberty are much

more eager to be accepted by their peers, so

establishing a relationship of trust with a teacher

turns out to be much more complicated than with

children of younger school age. If a child becomes

part of a delinquent group during adolescence

which fulﬁls his needs, establishing a relationship

with a teacher becomes more complicated,

leading to the refusal of help and support from

teachers and other professionals, as well as the

emergence of a so-called counterculture that

supports risky behaviour. A very important

predictor when building a relationship with an

at-risk child is his history with those close to

him during childhood. If a child, especially in

the early stages of development, but also in the

following stages of life, experiences repeated non-

acceptance or outright rejection by adults, the

child creates natural barriers and will be reserved

and withdrawn.

The ﬁnal limiting factor could be the speciﬁc

educators, therapists or institutions involved.

Shortcomings may be identiﬁed concerning, for

example, individuals’ personality or professional

competencies, or institutionally regarding the

regulatory or organizational framework. In the

process of working with at-risk children, there

are naturally moments when the expert has

insuﬃcient understanding of the needs of the

children and is not able to make a decision

regarding the appropriate strategy to create a

relationship. It is important, however, that in the

case of therapists this is an indication that further

steps must be taken, such as handing the child

over to care, supervision, etc.

Another phenomenon that is expressed

explicitly or implicitly in interviews is the lack of

time and energy. In the context of work with at-

risk children, experts reﬂect that this target group

needs maximum professional commitment, but

the reality is often diﬀerent. The contributors

report that as a result of demanding and often very

frustrating work, their commitment decreases and

passivity increases.

Educators reported that in some cases they

are not able to overcome professional stereotypes

or their own prejudices and without a more

thorough acquaintance with the pupil’s situation,

they assume bad intentions of the parents or

the children themselves. It is not possible to

establish a relationship of trust afterwards. In the

school environment, establishing a relationship

with a child at risk is also complicated for

teachers handling large class groups and being

overwhelmed by administration and other work

duties. A social pedagogue in a primary school

with a predominance of Roma pupils reported

that if he fails to understand the situation from the

child’s point of view, it is usually diﬃcult for him to

establish a relationship with the child. In the same

way, in children’s homes, it is necessary to work

with the personality of the pedagogue to avoid

creating preconceptions and prejudices, which the

educators try to correct through further education

and joint interviews. Unfortunately, the existence

of professional supervision in these organizations,

which could signiﬁcantly help to improve the

quality of interventions, is still not standard.

Limits at the institutional level are also related

to the interoperability of services. A relatively

common phenomenon in the case of at-risk

children and their families is the use of several

professional and support services at the same

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time, so several organizations can enter the lives

of families at the same time. It is reasonable to

assume that services should be provided in a

cohesive manner, although the reality is often

very diﬀerent. Individuals from the various

organisations involved, far from cooperating,

may not even know of the other’s existence. The

impacts of a lack of cooperation are of a diﬀerent

nature, it is worth noting, for example, that

overwhelming the client with interventions, chaos

due to the application of diﬀerent, sometimes

even contradictory approaches results in a loss of

trust in professional help.

“…they have already experienced so many

disappointments with those people…ﬁrst parents,

then teachers for example and others…then it is

diﬃcult for them to trust anyone…” (TP6).

Manifest and latent expression of the need

for a relationship with the child for successful

interventions

Some primary school educators do not talk about

establishing a relationship with the child at all within

the framework of educational interventions and

only explain what can be achieved from a practical

or technical point of view. They state, for example:

“They are entitled to free lunches…free after-school

clubs”, “We can help them arrange that” (PP3), “We

have an endowment fund at the elementary school,

and we paid for the trip with that…” (PP1)

“Parents only hear that someone can take their

beneﬁts…”(PP9)

Talk of establishing a student-teacher

relationship is also absent with another elementary

school teacher:

“We deﬁnitely organize free clubs for these children”

(PP4), “We often cooperate with social services”

(PP7), “We try to set some rules…” (PP10)

In some cases, the need to foster a relationship

with the child is expressed implicitly. A class

teacher and educational consultant discuss

what needs working on in the class. He talks

about the teacher’s responsibility to nurture and

encourage positive relationships in the classroom.

But he doesn’t talk directly about working on his

relationship with his children:

“It is necessary to work with the class, conduct

lessons and various bonding activities so that the

child simply feels good in that group and ﬁts in… it is

deﬁnitely necessary to support those relationships

in the classroom…” (PP6)

The prevention methodologist describes

working with a child at risk. He explains that in

order to do his job well and help the child, he

needs to know a lot of information about the child.

He describes it as feeling like detective work:

“You have to be interested in the children, otherwise

you won’t ﬁnd out anything. You have to be with

them and given time they will open up to you.” (PP2)

The social pedagogue also explains that

spending regular time with and taking interest in

the child is key. Again, they speak only indirectly

about the need to build a relationship.

In primary schools, none of the teachers

interviewed mentioned relationship as a condition

for eﬀective interventions with at-risk children.

Having said that, we can ﬁnd several examples

where there is a recognition that building a

teacher-pupil relationship will be important. The

social pedagogue states that she is able to work

more eﬀectively when she has a good relationship

with the child and the family.

On the other hand, relationship is one of

the most inﬂected terms across all interviews

with counsellors and therapists. Establishing a

relationship with the client is the starting point

for any work with him – it is a basic condition for

intervention. So initially, a lot of attention is paid to

building trust and creating a safe space. Corrective

work, neutralizing negative patterns of behaviour

and encouraging positive behaviour must wait

until the relationship has been established.

“That’s why the most important thing is relationship

and trust; without that it’s impossible to start at

all…” (TP4)

Children’s homes are diﬀerent in nature from

counselling institutions or schools. Despite the

fact that boys and girls can spend much of their

childhood there, it is ultimately a dynamic and

temporary environment. Children’s homes are

generally speaking a substitute for domestic life

and thus represent the child’s ‘home base’. It is

for this reason that educational caseworkers are

aware of the importance of relationship for any

further work with the child, and the nature of the

relationship is expressed in latent and manifest

forms. However, the statements collected also

declare the aforementioned fact that ﬁrst and

foremost a relationship must be established:

“the most important thing is to establish a

relationship; if you don’t have a relationship,

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nothing will work, you can’t work on anything, build

anything.” (VP8)

4. Discussion and Conclusion

When working with at-risk children, a number of

specialist education and re-education procedures

are used. These interventions are carried out

with great emphasis on the expertise of the

caseworkers involved and the professional

contexts in which they take place. Secondary

analysis of 26 semi-structured interviews with

teaching staﬀ revealed signiﬁcant understanding

and use of relationship as a characteristic of

successful interventions when working with

vulnerable girls and boys. Relationship was a

prevailing manifest or latent theme in individual

interviews, while thematic analysis revealed 3

themes. The ﬁrst of these focused on factors that

support relationship-building with an at-risk child.

The contributors agreed that relationship-

building is a long process that requires time, eﬀort,

and patience. Those involved from adjacent social

networks, such as the child’s family and other

caseworkers or organizations, also play a role in this

process (Borg & Drange, 2019; Hesjedal et al., 2013;

Schüller et al., 2022). In the Czech Republic, this is

one of the newer trends in the school environment.

If the school wants to help a child at risk, it must

no longer be an isolated but open process (Gurr

et al., 2022). Above all, cooperation with the

families of at-risk children is key, because the family

environment has signiﬁcant bearing on the success

of the education or re-education process (Berger

& Font, 2015; Kourkoutas et al., 2015; Paccaud et

al., 2021). However, eﬀorts to involve the family can

represent a considerable paradox in practice, since

in most cases the socio-pathological phenomena

the child is struggling with stem from the child’s

adverse domestic situation. Therefore, it is

necessary to intervene not only with at-risk children

but entire families. The contributors reported that,

in addition to the interest of human subjects in the

work process, being mindful of their own approach

and attitudes helps in building a relationship with a

child at risk. It was primarily about demonstrating

openness and helpfulness towards the girls and

boys; simply being there, not only when providing

targeted problem solving – spending free time

together, taking an interest in his hobbies and

opinions, listening to his thoughts and wishes. Just

allowing the child to be heard and knowing that

someone is listening and respects his needs is an

important element in developing a relationship.

However, the aforementioned is predicated on

the developed and mature personality of the

contributor, capable of reﬂection and, above all,

self-reﬂection. While this appeared rarely among

elementary school teachers, among counsellors

and pedagogues from institutional care it was

evident that they are aware of the importance of

the relationship with oneself, which may be due to

the completion of self-experiential psychotherapy

training and other courses and seminars focused

on personal development (Kross et al., 2023;

Mösler et al., 2022). Obstacles in establishing a

relationship appeared in the identiﬁed topics

concerning the child and his unavailability. At-

risk children have problems in social interactions,

being uncommunicative and lacking other social

skills (Kubíčková, 2020; Mmusi & van Breda,

2017). Establishing relationships appears to be

problematic, although the issue of trust and

distrust in other people is very controversial

(Dima & Bucuta, 2020). Furthermore, these boys

and girls may often have psychiatric diagnoses,

display increased irritability and mood swings,

low frustration tolerance, emotional ﬂatness or

reduced self-control (Jedlčka et al., 2015). Other

factors precluding relationship-building occur

at the level of the contributors themselves or

the institutions involved, in the form of personal

shortcomings including passivity, prejudices or

assumptions. Unfortunately, professional oversight,

which could signiﬁcantly help to improve the

services provided, is still not provided as standard

in these organizations (Brend & Collin-Vézina,

2021). Time pressure and administrative tasks

leave caseworkers with less energy to apply the

necessary interventions. At the institutional level,

the lack of multidisciplinary cooperation may be

problematic. However, when working with at-risk

children, closely coordinated multidisciplinary

collaboration is necessary to provide successful

interventions (Hesjedal et al., 2015; Lalaylants,

2013).

Despite the clearly important role that the

caseworker-child relationship plays in the provision

of interventions, some of the contributors do not

explicitly reﬂect this fact at all. Among elementary

school teachers there is, at most, only latent mention

of the importance of relationships (if it is mentioned

at all), whereas counsellors and pedagogues in

institutional care see mutual relationships as

the foundation of their work. Without a strong

relationship between the specialist and at-risk child,

it is not possible to provide successful educational

or re-educational interventions. Therefore, greater

attention should be paid to this topic in social care

education at undergraduate and postgraduate level

and in the further professional training of social

care workers and other professionals working with

at-risk children.

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Contributions

Contributions Authors

Conception and design of work Author 1, Author 2

Documentary search Author 1, Author 2, Author 3

Data collect Author 1, Author 2, Author 3

Critical data analysis and interpretation Author 1

Review and approval of versions Author 1

Funding

This research has not been supported by any grant or project. All costs for its implementation came from

the operating costs of the Department of Social Education, University of Ostrava.

Conﬂict interest

The authors declare that there is no conﬂict of interest.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Faculty of Social Studies of the University of Ostrava for their cooperation in

this study and all the teachers and therapists involved for their participation.

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Notes

1. The term teaching staﬀ includes both men and women; more detailed information on speciﬁc occupations and gen-

der representation is provided in the sample description.

2. The term children or child includes both boys and girls, hereafter both terms will be used. We also sometimes use

the term pupil in the context of the school environment.

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HOW TO CITE THE ARTICLE

Štenclová, V., Richterová, B. & Kubíčková, H. (2024). Utilizing professional relationships with at-risk

children. Pedagogía Social. Revista Interuniversitaria, 45, 162-182. DOI:10.7179/PSRI_2024.45.09

AUTHOR’S ADDRESS

Veronika Štenclová. Mgr. Veronika Štenclová, Ph.D. Faculty of Education; University of Ostrava.

Fráni Šrámka 3, 709 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic. E-mail: veronika.stenclova@osu.cz

Bohdana Richterová. Mgr. Bohdana Richterová, Ph.D. Faculty of Education; University of Ostrava.

Fráni Šrámka 3, 709 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic. E-mail: Bohdana.richterova@osu.cz

Hana Kubíčková. Mgr. Hana Kubíčková, Ph.D. Faculty of Education; University of Ostrava. Fráni

Šrámka 3, 709 00 Ostrava, Czech republic. E-mail: Hana.kubickova@osu.cz

ACADEMIC PROFILE

VERONIKA ŠTENCLOVÁ

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5964-5888

Doctor of pedagogy with a focus on social pedagogy, currently working as an assistant professor at

the Department of Social Pedagogy, Faculty of Pedagogy, University of Ostrava. At the same time,

she has been working with children in institutional care. The object of her professional interest

is work with children at risk, the educational process with people exhibiting risky behavior and

also educational work in institutions of institutional. She also participates in a number of research

projects, is a lecturer at educational seminars and a participant in the psychotherapy training of

Virginie Satirová’s Transformational Systemic Therapy. In the Czech Republic, she advocates the

legislative inclusion of the job position of social pedagogue in primary education.

BOHDANA RICHTEROVÁ

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5372-4465

Doctor of pedagogy, the head of the Department of Social Pedagogy, which educates experts

in bachelor’s and master’s degree studies. In her research she is focused on two areas; socially

vulnerable groups of children and personal development of students and teachers. As part of

the design of action research, she worked with groups of educators to improve their professional

practice. In the Czech Republic, she advocates the legislative inclusion of the job position of

social pedagogue in primary education.

HANA KUBÍČKOVÁ

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7755-2709

Assistant professors at The Faculty of Education, University of Ostrava. Her research is focussed

on issue vulnerable children and their families, youth at risk and foster families. Her other research

interests include personality and social development of students and teachers.

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.

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Using findings from a 2-year study, this paper explores undergraduate engineering student perspectives on good university teachers. Findings from open survey questions and semi-structured interviews were analysed using principles of grounded theory, resulting in four themes identified by students as key to good university teaching: communication, clarity, commitment, and care. These findings are discussed in relation to recent international debates on teaching excellence. The basic argument of the paper is that the discourse of teaching excellence needs to be critically reconsidered and would benefit from inclusion of the actual perspectives of students rather than student voice discourses framed by others.

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Full-text available

Jan 2022

Purpose Through description and consideration of 12 models developed as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), a new model of successful school leadership is developed. Design/methodology/approach The paper is necessarily descriptive in nature. For the first time, 12 ISSPP models are described together, and these descriptions are then used inductively to create a new successful school leadership model. Findings The open systems approach adopted depicts schools as a continuous cycle of input-transformation-output with feedback loops that inform each stage of the cycle. The inputs are the variables that lead to transformation. The transformation stage is the actions or processes that individuals, groups and organisations engage in because of the inputs, and these lead to a range of student and school outcomes. Feedback loops connect the stages, and the whole model is open to the influence of five contextual forces: economic, political, socio-cultural, technological and system, institutional and educational. Originality/value Models are an important way to make sense of complex phenomena. A new model of successful school leadership, with an open systems approach, provides a different frame to consider the findings of the ISSPP and potentially allows the ISSPP research to inform practice and connect with other school leadership views in new ways.

Human Relationships in Higher Education: The Power of Collaboration, Creativity and Openness

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

We educators may have been obsessed with perfection, expertise, polished experiences and performances too much for too long. Where is the human? Ironed out? This provocative opinion paper is a collection of the authors’ reflections based on experiences, observations, ideas and readings. We invite educators to consider and explore what may help them (re-) connect with their inner selves and others socially, emotionally and cognitively in the context of learning and teaching in HE during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. With reference to a collaborative creative initiative that was implemented under the auspices of the Global OER Graduate Network, the paper aims to instigate a discussion around the importance of building and sustaining effective relationships in HE. These are perceived as the drivers that potentially boost participation and student success using collaboration, creativity and openness. Working in partnership with students, recognising and accepting individuality as well as creating opportunities for connection can support the operationalisation of these reflections in practice.

The Impact of Clients’ and Therapists’ Characteristics on Therapeutic Alliance and Outcome

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022
J Contemp Psychother

This article investigates distances between therapists and their clients in their experience of the therapeutic alliance across the duration of the psychotherapeutic treatments in a naturalistic study. We looked at the working alliances from different vantage points—rupture, repair of ruptures, distances in the alliance impressions of both clients and therapists—and their correlation with treatment outcome. The only predictive variable of alliance ruptures was the inability of therapists to bond sufficiently with their clients regarding a sustainable working atmosphere, which could be identified through a continuous distant alliance rating by the therapists. Alliance ruptures in turn significantly predicted premature termination of treatments, whereas alliance ruptures per se did not necessarily predict treatment outcome. The paper discusses the possible role of the quality of therapists’ attachment styles as a potentially crucial variable in an effective working alliance in psychotherapy.

Interventionen für Kinder und Jugendliche, die in Pflegefamilien oder Jugendhilfeeinrichtungen leben – ein systematisches Review

Article

Jan 2022
PRAX KINDERPSYCHOL K

Children or adolescents living in foster or institutional care received so far insufficient consideration in therapy intervention research. At the same time, they are a high-risk group for developing mental illness. The aim of this systematic review is to record evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions of the past 15 years on a national and international level that address children and young people living in foster care and youth welfare institutions and their mental health. Through a systematic literature research, interventions for the target group described were identified and analyzed about their specificity and evidence. From 170 publications, ten interventions with sufficient evidence could be included in the present analysis. The result of the current literature research shows that further specialized psychiatric-psychotherapeutic interventions for children in foster care and youth welfare institutions are necessary. Regarding the transferability to the German youth welfare and health system, cross-system and interdisciplinary cooperation is needed. Hereafter further research is required to establish specific and evidence-based intervention approaches.

Stronger together: Workplace social support among residential child welfare professionals

Article

Sep 2021
CHILD ABUSE NEGLECT

Background Residential childcare workers (RCWs) in child welfare and youth-justice settings are at risk of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and moral distress. Workplace support has been shown to be protective against work-related harms for some helping professionals and a lack of workplace support has been cited as a contributing factor toward workforce instability; however, little is known about what types or sources of support are effective for RCWs. Participants and setting 81 RCWs from 11 residential units in 11 of the 16 territorial service centers across the province of Québec, Canada. Methods This interpretive description study analyzed data extracted from transcripts of individual interviews guided by the Secure Base Interview protocol (Schofield & Beek, 2018). Responses to a single item were read for meaning, compared, contrasted, and then coded using the thematic analysis technique. The sources of support identified by participants as helpful were aggregated to reveal a common support system pattern. Results Multiple sources of social support were described; the majority were interpersonal interactions with peers, unit managers, and various interdisciplinary team members. Informal individual supports without role overlap and teams with a common vision were most often cited, even when formal supports were available. Conclusions Implications of these findings include the need to conceptualize effective workplace social support for RCWs and to rethink the place of mutual-aid among trauma-exposed professionals in residential child welfare and youth-justice settings.

Conducting Thematic Analysis with Qualitative Data

Article

Jun 2021

Chad Lochmiller

This article discusses one approach to conducting thematic analysis using structured qualitative data collected from focus groups. Thematic analysis is one of the most used but often poorly defined approaches in the qualitative research community. The method is principally concerned with the identification of patterns which are then reported as researcher-generated themes. In this article, I use data obtained from the Qualitative Data Repository to demonstrate how secondary qualitative data can be analyzed to produce themes. I note the ways in which this process unfolds as well as how it differs from other techniques.

Utilizing professional relationships with at-risk children

Abstract

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