Impact of group care living.

Abstract

This study was designed to analyze and research the impact of group care placements on the child's development in the specific areas of educational development, relationship development, social skills development, and safety. Participants consisted of 33 (N= 33) alumni from two participating group homes in the state of Oklahoma. Requirements were that participants were 18 years or older and had been a resident at one of the participating group homes for at least one year of their childhood. A questionnaire consisting of 26 questions was completed by all participants. Respondents were asked questions regarding their perception of their educational development before and during their stay at the group home, their relationship development, their social skills development and their overall opinion of the level of safety they felt while in the group home. A correlation matrix was performed in SPSS to analyze the degree of association among variables. Significant correlations were found between many of the variables. The strongest correlation was found between the following variables: Feeling of Encouragement and Formed Positive Relationships (r= .804). In order to compare the means of the independent samples, a t-test was performed using the SPSS program. The following variables had obtained significance values; Enjoyed School (.025), Grades Improved (.006), Good Grades before Group Home (.006), Recommend Group Home (.024), Friends outside Group Home (.043), and Participated in activities outside group home (.007).