Where do you stand? : Factors that can impact residential care providers ability to mentalize the youth in their care

This study explores how residential care workers attitudes towards their work might affect their ability to mentalize the youth in their care. Youth in residential care don’t live with parents or guardians and adolescents are dependent on safe adults who attempt to understand them in order to develop emotionally and behaviorally. This is a role residential care workers might fill. The residential care worker’s mentalization has therefore been suggested to be an important factor in youths’ development. The purpose of this study was to explore how the approach towards their work might affect residential care workers ability to mentalize the youth in their care. The data was collected through nine semi-structured interviews with workers at residential care homes for youth between 10 and 23 years of age. A reflexive thematic analysis was performed. Two themes were generated, the main theme Answering Questions – How position taking might affect the care home worker’s ability to mentalize the youths in their care and the subtheme Facing uncertainty – What might cause uncertainty in position taking and how can it affect the care home worker’s ability to mentalize the youth in their care? The analysis showed that there are some positions, connected to specific questions, that might affect the care home worker’s ability to mentalize the youth in their care. The analysis also highlights that uncertainty in taking positions might affect the ability to mentalize, and that the residential care home might affect the employees positions. Possible applications of these findings are discussed.