Perceived Living Conditions of Young People in Secure Residential Care: Psychometric Properties of the Best Interest of the Child − Self-Report Questionnaire (BIC-S)

M. D. C. Brummelaar (), W. J. Post, P. A. Arkesteijn, M. E. Kalverboer, A. T. Harder and E. J. Knorth
Additional contact information
M. D. C. Brummelaar: University of Groningen
W. J. Post: University of Groningen
P. A. Arkesteijn: University of Groningen
M. E. Kalverboer: University of Groningen
A. T. Harder: University of Groningen
E. J. Knorth: University of Groningen

Child Indicators Research, 2018, vol. 11, issue 4, No 5, 1175-1192

Abstract: Abstract The Best Interest of the Child − Self-report questionnaire (BIC-S) is designed as a tool to ensure young people in secure residential care have a voice about their living environment. The primary aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the BIC-S. Second, we wanted to map the experiences of young people with their current residential living environment. Therefore, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to assess the experiences of young people with the BIC-S instrument in this cross-sectional study. Based on a sample of 74 young people staying in secure residential care in the Netherlands (2015), we explored the construct validity and reliability of the BIC-S through a Mokken Scale Analysis. The sample consisted of 38 boys and 36 girls (mean age 15.5). After evaluating the psychometric properties of the instrument, we focused on the experiences of young people with their current residential living environment. The results show that eleven out of the fourteen BIC-S conditions form a moderate scale to measure how young people perceive the quality of their living environment (H = .40; Rho = .86). With regard to the residential environment, the participants often raise issues which relate to personal safety, to activities within the institute, or to the relationship they have with care professionals. The results indicate that the BIC-S has the potential to serve as an instrument for young people to voice opinions on their living environment while in residential care.

Keywords: Construct validity; Self-report questionnaire; Best interest of the child; Secure residential youth care; Mokken scale analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-017-9460-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:chinre:v:11:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s12187-017-9460-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... f-life/journal/12187

DOI: 10.1007/s12187-017-9460-0

Access Statistics for this article

Child Indicators Research is currently edited by Asher Ben-Arieh

More articles in Child Indicators Research from Springer, The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().