Helping Institutionalised Children through a Trusting Relationship-Findings from a One-Year Psychosocial Intervention...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Attachment Theory
• Mental Health Interventions

Background:

• Institutionalized children often lack stable relationships, leading to disorganized attachment and negative developmental outcomes.
• Attachment security is crucial for healthy child development and well-being.
• There is a need for interventions to improve attachment security in institutionalized children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe changes in attachment security and mental health of institutionalized children after one year of attendance at a psychosocial rehabilitation daycare center.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of individualized care based on Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) principles.

Main Methods:

• A case series study involving five institutionalized children aged 8-11 years.
• Intervention focused on staff building trusting relationships using TBRI principles.
• Measures included the Child Attachment Interview, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Teacher Report Form (TRF), and clinical interviews.

Main Results:

• All five children demonstrated improvements in mental health.
• Two participants showed changes in the organization of their attachment.
• Three children experienced relational ruptures during the study period.

Conclusions:

• Psychosocial interventions focused on building trusting relationships appear beneficial for institutionalized children.
• Repeated relational breakdowns can be damaging for these children due to their life histories.
• New adult relationships for institutionalized children should be established only after assessing the potential for sustainability.