What aspects of the successful relationships with professional helpers enhance the lives of young people facing significant disadvantage?

Rebeca D. Sandu

Children and Youth Services Review, 2019, vol. 106, issue C

Abstract: A recent study (Sandu, under review) has identified a new set of characteristics of young people facing severe and multiple disadvantage and highlighted the role of emotions in the disconnection from support, which opened up unexplored avenues for intervention with this population. This study documented the ways in which professional helpers (n = 35) from 16 support organisations (United Kingdom = 11; United States = 5) built relationships with young people (n = 30) in these circumstances. Thematic analysis of the semi-structured interviews indicated that relationships in this context resembled family relationships, where the focus was on building a bond rather than dealing with risks or resolving conditions. Micro-processes characteristic of initiating, developing, and cementing these relationships have been described. Relating in this context demanded a different support approach from the workers who used personal ethics to maintain healthy boundaries in the relationships, not the guidance of professional organisations. The findings brought to the fore the role of social connection with its implications for policy and practice as a primary form of response to young people in great difficulty.

Keywords: Family relationships; Context of significant disadvantage; Breaking professional boundaries; Personal ethics; Young people (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740919304219
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:106:y:2019:i:c:s0190740919304219

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104462

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().