RESEARCH ARTICLE


Language and Psychosocial Skills of Institutionalized Children in Greece



Ralli, M. Asimina1, *, Schiza Melpomeni2, Tsiatsiou Alexandra1
1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
2 Early Childhood Department, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Athens, Greece

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2017
Volume: 9
First Page: 76
Last Page: 87
Publisher Id: TOFAMSJ-9-76
DOI: 10.2174/1874922401709010076

Article History:

Received Date: 17/01/2017
Revision Received Date: 24/04/2017
Acceptance Date: 14/06/2017
Electronic publication date: 12/08/2017
Collection year: 2017

© 2017 Ralli et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Correspondence: Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece; Tel: +210 7277945; E-mails: asiminaralli@gmail.com, asralli@psych.uoa.gr


Abstract

Background:

Institutionalization is increasingly acknowledged as a poor policy for the children. Every country has important responsibilities concerning the protection and promotion of children’s rights who are already in alternative care. Even a relatively short institutional placement may have long term negative consequences on children’s well-being and adult life.

Aim:

The aim of the present study was to investigate the language and psychosocial skills of Greek institutionalized children in comparison to family raised children.

Method:

60 preschool children (30 institutionalized children and 30 children brought up in families) participated in the study. The children ranged in age from 4 to 5 years of age. Children’s language and psychosocial skills were assessed.

Result:

The results demonstrated that the institutionalized children had significantly lower scores in the expressive, receptive vocabulary, narrative skills and psychosocial adjustment in comparison to the children raised in families. These results are discussed in relation to their implications for policy makers in order to move towards the development of new policies, where children are taken care of in more supportive surroundings than an institution.

Keywords: Institutionalization, Preschool children, Language skills, Psychosocial skills.