Residental care institution through the eyes of children and youth

This diploma thesis deals with different ways in which children and adolescents experience living in correctional institutions. At the beginning of the theoretical part the characteristics of children and adolescents in correctional institutions are presented and the population that is admitted into these institutions is described. Because most of them suffer from emotional and behavioural disorders, descriptions of these disorders are also included. Furthermore, coping strategies for stressful situations are described as well as how experts specialised in this field deal with these children and adolescents along with the hermeneutic approach to dealing with the children and adolescents. To get to know these children and adolescents their stories have to be heard first. Each disorder has its cause. The personal growth of the children and adolescents that are admitted to these institutions is affected by different factors: their family, school, personal characteristics and peers. These indicators are individually described in the theoretical part as well as traps and aspects that have to be monitored closely. Because the admittance of children and adolescents into institutions itself represents a stressful event for them, this process and the reasons for the admittance are described along with the role of the centre for social work and the court in the process. Each correctional institution also has an educational programme for the children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders. This programme includes guidelines and methods for their education. In this part, the conditions and activities for realizing this programme are described. The last section of the theoretical part contains both negative and positive aspects of living in a correctional institution and biographical narratives of individuals who lived in correctional instituions. In the practical part a qualitative research was carried out. Four interviews were conducted with the children and adolescents living in the Correctional Institution Planina in order to gain insight into how they experience the life in the institution. The research included their childhood, problems they had had to overcome, the coping strategies they had used for facing stressful situations before and after they were admitted to the correctional institution as well as how they dealt with the admittance into the correctional institution. Further questions were also answered, e.g. if they consider living in the institution as a positive or negative experience, what their attitude towards the professional staff and the institutional order is and how they see their lives after they are released alongside with their wishes and expectations. The research of their biographical stories shows that after a certain period of time they accept living in the institution despite the reluctance they had felt at first. The children and adolescents are well aware of the fact that they benefit from being institutionalised and that they have gained new skills as well as made progress in their personal growth. They did not like all the rules but they still obeyed them because they were aware of the fact that they were for their own good