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Staff and Boarders Perspectives of the Boarding Environment

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Abstract

This research provides support for a direct comparison between the home and boarding environments, the inference being that boarding staff who fulfil an in loco parentis role have an integral part to play in the developmental outcomes of adolescents (boarders). Research in the area of family functioning has found that adolescents tend to view the family environment more negatively than their parents and that these discrepant perceptions have been linked to both internalising and externalising disorders in adolescents. In an attempt to further clarify the influence of the parenting role of boarding staff and of the boarding environment in general, 121 staff and 415 boarders from schools in Queensland, Australia, were asked to rate the boarding environment on levels of conflict, social support and climate. It was found that boarders, like adolescents in the home environment, perceived significantly higher levels of conflict and lower levels of social support and positive climate than did staff. These findings lend further support to the conceptualisation of the boarding environment as a home away from home. The implications of these findings for boarders’ developmental outcomes are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Rm 233 McElwain Building, St. Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Julie Hodges

  2. University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Jeanie Sheffield

  3. Triple P International, Indooroopilly, QLD, Australia

    Alan Ralph

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  1. Julie Hodges
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  2. Jeanie Sheffield
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  3. Alan Ralph
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Correspondence to Julie Hodges.

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Conflict of interest

The principal author of this paper is employed as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Parenting and Family Support Centre, University of Queensland and has received financial support from the university to attend conferences where papers on this research have been delivered. The University of Queensland also employs the second author as an academic and the third author is the Head of Training at Triple P International. No grant monies have been received for research or for conference presentations.

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Hodges, J., Sheffield, J. & Ralph, A. Staff and Boarders Perspectives of the Boarding Environment. J Child Fam Stud 25, 1045–1056 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0287-3

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