Life skills in family-style group homes

When children with complex problems can no longer live at home or in a foster family, a family-style group home can offer a suitable place. A family-style group home is a small-scale living environment in which one or more children are taken into the home of the family carers. These carers provide 24-hour professional upbringing and guidance to the children in their care.

Previous research has shown that family carers often focus heavily on managing challenging behaviour, which puts everyday parenting under pressure. This project explores how a method for strengthening life skills in children living in family-style group homes can help them better cope with the demands, expectations and challenges of daily life. The aim of the method to be developed is to support family carers in shaping ordinary life by teaching children skills that enhance their social-emotional and cognitive self-regulation.

The results will include a method that supports family carers in strengthening the life skills of children and contributes to improving social-emotional and cognitive self-regulation in everyday life.

01 September 2023 - 31 August 2025

The project is structured around three sub-projects spanning a total duration of two years:

Sub-project 1: Needs assessment

Sub-project 2: Intervention study, including pre- and post-measurements

Sub-project 3: Translation to practice and education

The outcomes of the research will be translated into educational settings, enabling future professionals to learn how to support children in family-style group homes in developing essential life skills.