The Impact of a Board Game Program on Residential Care: Perspectives of Adolescents and Professionals

This research is aimed at adolescents in residential care. For eight months, adolescents from 23 residential centers in Spain, Germany and Poland participated in weekly board game sessions facilitated by educators specifically trained to study the impact of this program on their relationships, well-being, and cognitive, emotional, and social skills. Based on a pre-post design method, through ad hoc questionnaires in equivalent formats for adolescents and educators, a total of 504 questionnaires were collected: 269 participants (135 adolescents, 134 educators) for the pretest, and 235 (124 adolescents, 111 educators) for the posttest. The results indicate that the adolescents' self-assessment of their skills remained similar before and after the program, the educators assessed the skills of the youth as significantly improved in the posttest. The results therefore indicate a positive transformation in the educators' perspectives, thanks to the play sessions. Their evaluations of the adolescents' skills became more positive, which in turn generated a more favorable view of the adolescents themselves, something of great importance in professional practice. The high scores for the relationship between educators and adolescents also emphasize the need to give priority to play within the residential centers and provide training in play for educators.