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A Comparative Study of Greek Children in Long-term Residential Group Care and in Two-parent Families: I. Social, Emotional, and Behavioural Differences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 1998

Panyiota Vorria
Affiliation:
University of Ioannina, Greece
Michael Rutter
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Andrew Pickles
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Stephen Wolkind
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital, London, U.K.
Angela Hobsbaum
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, London, U.K.
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Abstract

The social, behavioural, and school adjustment of 41 9-year-old children in long-term residential group care in Greece was compared with that of children of the same sex and age brought up in two-parent families. Observational, interview, and questionnaire measures were employed. Observations in school classrooms showed that compared with their classmates, the group care children were more inattentive, participated less often in the classroom activities, were more likely to be passive, and tended to be involved in alternative and nonproductive activities. In the playground, they rarely interacted with non-institutional children. On both parent and teacher scales the group care children showed significantly more overall disturbance. The boys showed poor task involvement in the classroom and more emotional difficulties, conduct problems, and hyperactivity, whereas the between-group differences for girls were statistically significant only for emotional disturbance and poor task involvement in the classroom. Both boys and girls in long-term residential care showed less harmonious, confiding relationships with peers than those reared in families, and were more affection-seeking with teachers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1998 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry

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