Mellanmänskligt samspel - En kvantitativ studie av hur personal inom ungdomsvård uppfattar betydelsen av relationen till ungdomen i behandlingen

Sammanfattning: Interpersonal processes - A quantitative study of how staff within youth welfare perceives the importance of the relationship with the youth in the treatment You occasionally meet the opinion that treatment within institutional youth care doesn’t work out well, even though the intentions of the care provided by SiS (The National Board of Institutional Care in Sweden) are that it shall. If the methods used within the institution show good results, then why doesn’t it always work out well afterwards? A lot of literature focuses on the importance of the relationship between staff and youth. At the institutions where I’ve made my survey, the youths stay for one or two years, which mean that they spend a large part of their adolescence there, not only in direct treatment but also in everyday life training. Institutions are consequently a kind of social institutions, whereas the same interpersonal processes exist there as well as in other social institutions – like a family. Through my survey I therefore studied the staff’s opinions of interpersonal processes between them and the youth, to find out more about how they perceive the importance of the relationship. The results show that the staff, to a large extent, is aware of the interpersonal processes and perceive the relationship with the youth as important. But the results can possibly just point out the staff’s awareness, and not their real acting. Youth within institutional care can benefit from good relationships with the staff, implying feelings of safety, pride and worthiness. This is possible when the staff listens and pays attention to the youth, acknowledges him/her, provides loving care with a sense of solidarity and communion, believes in the youth’s abilities and shows trust, all with awareness of both the verbal and non-verbal communication. This can help the youth to form a new and improved identity, higher self-esteem and a positive self-image, which in turn gives the youth renewed strength to face both ongoing and future obstacles in life with.