Assessing change in the behavior of children and adolescents in youth welfare institutions using goal attainment scaling.

Background Evaluating youth welfare services is vital, both because of the considerable influence they have on the development of children and adolescents, as well as owing to the extensive financial costs involved, especially for child residential care. In this naturalistic study we have undertaken to evaluate changes in various behaviors of young people who are in youth welfare institutions, not only by using standardized questionnaires, but also specifically modified goal attainment scales (GAS). These scales were meant to represent the pedagogical objectives of youth welfare professionals as well as the individual goals of the young people in care.