Relational Climate and Effectiveness of Residential Care: Adolescent Perspectives

In Italy, the evaluation of residential care is particularly important in view of: (1) the process of deinstitutionalization; (2) the power of the public authorities to devolve the running of services, including residential communities, to private partners. The literature has stressed the importance of involving multiple stakeholders in the design and implementation of evaluative research. This article summarizes a research plan for the evaluation of child and adolescent residential communities based on the theoretical framework of developmental psychopathology and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of human development. A study is presented on the perception that adolescents in care have of the community’s relational climate—analyzed by way of everyday routines and communications with adults—and of the effects of the intervention. The results corroborate the hypothesis that the relational climate in a community is a good predictor of the efficacy of residential care.