Socio-educational intervention with adolescents in centres for the care of the unprotected

Abstract

Pedagogical action with disruptive minors is an essential element in the approach to care for children and adolescents in today's societies. Objective: to analyse and present the framework of intervention with disruptive minors in the only assessment centre for adolescent minors who present self-harming risk behaviours for themselves and others. Methodology: combined descriptive analysis. Participation: 18 minors in the centre analysed, 55.56% (n=10) males and 44.44% (n=8) females; ages between 13 and 17 years ( c  = 15.75) from different families in a situation of high lack of protection. Instruments: physical restraint, aggression de-escalation techniques, person-centred care, positive discipline and validation. Results: 1) Person-centred intervention, positive discipline and emotional validation of adolescents generate positive results in the intervention following highly aggressive disruptive situations. 2) Interactions based exclusively on sanctions, isolation and containment produce immediate results but not later. 3) Minors with mental health symptomatology relapse into aggressive behaviours. Conclusions: Although it is not always possible to generate a de-escalation in aggressive behaviour, the subsequent work with these minors leads us to think that the circumstances of attention and emotional validation, as well as the individualised referential analysis focused on awareness, allow for a modification of substantial and key aspects in the behaviour of these adolescents.