ABSTRACT For children in residential care, safety and supportive relationships, particularly with direct care staff, are critical to recovery, growth, and development. The association between children’s self-report of feeling safe and of the quality of relationships with staff was examined in 715 children ages 8–21 receiving care in 24 North American agencies. In total, 64% of children report usually or always feeling safe, 16% report never or rarely feeling safe, and 20% feel safe sometimes. The percentage of children reporting never or rarely feeling safe varied from 0% to 57% across agencies. Staff perceptions of child safety were greater than those of the children. After controlling for child and agency covariates, the quality of the relationship with staff as perceived by the children was highly associated with the extent to which the child reported feeling safe. No child demographic, service history, or agency characteristics were associated with children perceptions of safety in the linear mixed model that included quality of relationship with staff. Staff practices, fostered and sustained by organizational support, that improve the quality of their relationships with children may increase children’s feelings of safety and thus their capacity for benefiting from therapeutic residential care.

中文翻译：

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儿童在住宿照顾中的安全感：成年子女关系的支持作用

摘要对于寄养儿童，特别是与直接护理人员的安全和支持关系，对于康复，成长和发展至关重要。在北美24个机构中，对715名8-21岁的儿童进行了检查，检查了儿童自我报告的安全感与与员工的关系质量之间的关联。总计，有64％的儿童报告通常或始终感到安全，16％的孩子从未感到或很少感到安全，而20％的人有时感到安全。在各个机构中，报告从来没有或很少感到安全的儿童的百分比从0％到57％不等。员工对儿童安全的看法比对儿童的看法要大。在控制了孩子和代理的协变量之后，孩子们认为与员工的关系质量与孩子报告感到安全的程度高度相关。在线性混合模型（包括与员工的关系质量）中，没有儿童人口统计学，服务历史或代理机构特征与儿童对安全的看法相关。在组织的支持下促进和维持的员工行为，可以改善他们与孩子的关系质量，从而可以增加孩子的安全感，从而提高他们从住院治疗中受益的能力。