The Associations between Structural Treatment Characteristics and Post-Treatment Functioning in Compulsory Residential Youth Care

In 2005 a new compulsory residential treatment program was developed for adolescents in need for protection against themselves
or their environment.

The aim of the present study was to examine the association of structural treatment characteristics of this new residential
treatment program (i.e., duration of treatment, discharge status, and group composition in terms of sex) with post-treatment
functioning. Additionally, the number of pre-treatment risk factors was included in the model.

A total of 301 adolescents (174 boys, 127 girls), with a mean age at time of admittance of 15.50 (SD = 1.26) participated
in this study. The number of risk factors was derived from treatment files of the adolescents at time of entrance. Six months
after discharge, adolescents participated in a telephone interview to measure ten post-treatment variables indicating how
well they were doing.

The results showed that duration of treatment was related to post-treatment living situation, in that adolescents who were
in treatment for shorter durations were more likely to live on their own after treatment. For discharge status, findings suggested
that adolescents who were regularly discharged had more frequent contact with their family; however, they also showed higher
alcohol consumption 6 months after treatment. Group composition was related to the girls’ official offending, indicating that
girls placed in mixed-sex groups showed significantly fewer official police contacts than did girls in girls-only treatment
groups.

Overall, structural treatment characteristics were hardly related to the adolescents’ functioning after treatment. Suggestions
for future research are discussed.