"Just because she's there doesn't mean she is parentless": Parental perspectives on involvement and contact with their children in educational residential care for youth from underprivileged backgrounds.

Abstract

There is wide recognition that contact with parents while in residential care settings (RCSs) is beneficial for children. Yet, some barriers limit parental involvement. Research often overlooks parents' perspectives, focusing often on administrative data and professionals' reports. This study explored the experiences of parents whose children reside in educational RCSs for youth from underprivileged backgrounds, highlighting parent-child relations, parental involvement, and factors that hinder or promote parents' participation. The study utilized in-depth, semistructured qualitative interviews with 33 parents of youth (aged 12-18) from 11 Israeli RCSs. A thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted to identify themes and subthemes describing the parents' experiences and insights. Two key themes emerged (a) the state of the parent-child relationship during the child's stay in the RCS, including the transition to the facility; and (b) parental involvement at the RCS, including both proactive involvement initiated by the parents and involvement facilitated by staff, as well as the barriers to and facilitators of this involvement. The main barriers include staff's low availability, passivity, alienation, as well as high turnover; the children's demanding schedule; and the family's socioeconomic challenges, geographic distance, and internal conflicts. Main facilitators include a collaborative staff approach, positive child-staff relationships, parental empowerment, and holistic staff partnerships. The study emphasized the need for policies that actively involve parents in RCSs and recognize them as key sources of knowledge about their children; and the importance of staff training to improve parental engagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).