Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Residential Care for Children and Youth

Professor Henderson has, from different angles, examined the ‘conventional wisdom’ that residential care for children and youth is inherently harmful to their development. He concludes that this ‘wisdom’ is scientifically completely unsustainable. As professionals (in training), policymakers and scientists, we have been enriched with a very convincing book.

Erik J. KnorthProfessor, University of Groningen, the Netherlands

This text fills an important gap in the literature on residential care. It offers significant new analyses based on an extensive review of relevant literature. This challenge to the “conventional wisdom” is overdue and a critically important addition to the literature.

James P. AnglinPhD, Emeritus Professor, University of Victoria

A must-read corrective to conventional wisdom on residential child care. Henderson provides valuable analysis and perspective that will help to shape a more nuanced view of residential child care policy, research and practice.

James K. WhittakerPh.D, Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor of Social Work Emeritus, The University of Washington

Highly vulnerable children often fail in foster homes, retraumatized by multiple placements. Some require intensive relational care, turning trauma into resilience. Henderson’s well-researched book deflates fake science that is eliminating the most intensive alternatives for these young people.

Larry K. Brendtro

PhD, author, Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Futures of Promise

This scholarly exploration of research on group care for vulnerable children crosses years and continents. The forensic approach to the knowledge base will be welcomed by all who argue for a continuing place for good quality children’s homes within the range of placements for (older) children.

June ThoburnCBE, LiitD, MSW, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, University of East Anglia

Bruce Henderson has methodically collated and rigorously interrogated the so-called and actual evidence base for the enduring dominant discourse that residential childcare categorically causes harm and therefore should remain an option of last resort. He similarly interrogates the evidence for a quieter but no less stubborn alternative discourse: that high-quality residential care can be the best option to support some children to flourish at some points in their lives. The book’s rigour, even-handedness and readability make it an extremely valuable resource for anyone who wants to move beyond ideology, assumption and distortion.

Laura Steckley, PhDSenior Lecturer, School of Social Work & Social Policy/CELCISUniversity of Strathclyde

Bruce B. Henderson is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Western Carolina University. He received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development and is a member of the Society for Research in Child Development. He has published widely on children’s curiosity, memory development, and higher education.