Gender, Culture and the Living Group Climate

Abstract

This study focused on the cultural and gender differences in the perception of living group climate quality between native Dutch youth and Dutch youth with a Turkish and Moroccan cultural background placed in Dutch residential youth care. Living group climate was examined by means of a self-report measure in a sample of 437 youth of whom were 178/173 native Dutch boys and girls, and 40/46 Turkish/Moroccan boys and girls. Living group climate was measured with the Group Climate Instrument that consists of four subscales (i.e. Support, Growth, Repression, and Atmosphere). Results indicated that Turkish/Moroccan boys experienced significantly less support and growth in comparison to native Dutch boys. We conclude that a cultural sensitive approach in residential youth care is important by acknowledging the cultural values, specifically the collectivistic masculine identity of Turkish/Moroccan boys, to better meet basic psychological needs of these boys in residential care and improve treatment efficacy. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.