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.