Effectiveness study of the Social Network Strategies in youth care.

The present study aims to examine the effectiveness of Social Network Strategies in a sample of Dutch families with children between 8 and 18 years. All families receive help from one of two youth care institutes. The effectiveness of this strategy will be compared with care as usual trajectories within two Dutch youth care agencies. It is expected that Social Network Strategies will lead to a stronger reduction of problems of the child compared to the care as usual trajectories. Additionally it is expected that working from Social Network Strategies will lead to a stronger increase of the social network, a stronger reduction of parental stress and a stronger increase of empowerment of the family. Finally, it is expected that the alliance between the client and social worker has a positive moderating influence on the primary and secondary outcomes.

First,working from SNS will lead to a decrease in child’s problems. Second, SNS will lead to increase in empowerment, and decrease in parenting stress. Third, the alliance between the client and social worker will moderate the outcomes of SNS

1. Premeasurement (baseline)

2. after three sessions: client - professional alliance

3. Post measurement (end of treatment).

4. Follow up 1 (after 3 months)

5. Follow up 2 (after 6 months)

Clients in the experimental group will receive the intervention called ‘Social Network Strategy’, developed by Riet Portengen (www.sonestra.nl). Clients in the control group will receive the care as usual trajectories within the two care agencies.