Comparative European study: „Implementation and evaluation of quality criteria for the professional support of violent children and young people"

Duration: January 2009 - December 2010
Funding: European Commission (Daphne III program)

Abstract:

The Daphne III-project bases on the results of the previous EU-program „Daphne II“ where the process of professional support for violent children and adolescents was analysed and evaluated in five European countries (Germany, Switzerland, France, Poland and Sweden). As a result, the researchers extracted “quality criteria” for best practice in this field.

The aim of the subsequent international study (Daphne III program) is to implement and verify these quality criteria in every-day work of practitioners working with violent children or adolescents. Therefore, two training strategies for practitioners were developed and will be realized by the German research team in Freiburg and the surrounding regions as well as by the other project partners in Warsaw, Rennes, Halmstad and St. Gallen.

The evaluation of the project aims at comparing the two training strategies, asserting the meaning of quality criteria in practice and helping to further develop good practice in dialogue with the practitioners. The continuous evaluation of the trainings is a combination of process and outcome evaluation, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The process is being recorded on the one hand through questionnaires inquiring the professionals’ thematic focuses and demands throughout the training process and on the other hand through participant observation in all the groups. The outcome of both strategies is measured systematically through pre-post analyses on the level of networks (all parties involved in the help process) by means of network maps and on the level of practitioners’ practices and competencies in working with violent young people by means of a questionnaire and a qualitative instrument (“dilemma situations”).

Assistant lecturer:

Claudia Röser

Elisabeth Stehr

Publications:

Engel, E.-M., Pape, E., Rönnau, M. & Fröhlich-Gildhoff, K. (2007). Ambulante Hilfen für gewalttätige Kinder und Jugendliche – eine europäische Vergleichsstudie. In: Horizonte, 30, Juli 2007, S. 57–60.

Fröhlich-Gildhoff, K., Wigger, A., Lecaplain, P., Svensson,O. & Stelmaszuk, Z.W. (2008). Professional support for violent young people. Results of a comparative European study. Freiburg: FEL.