The Efficacy of a Mindful Self-compassion Based Program with Caregivers of Young Offenders Placed At the Portuguese Juvenile Justice Facilities

Youth delinquency is a relevant social problem and there is growing interest in improving intervention with young offenders. Interventions developed at the Youth Detention Centers (YDC) involve several human resources, who daily supervise the youth routines, care for them, and model their behaviors. The challenges and difficulties of working with people with delinquent behavior have been explored in different groups of caregivers, but little studied in caregivers of young offenders. Such difficulties are identified as risk factors for the development of physical and psychological symptoms in caregivers, and seem to be related to personal issues (e.g., gender, age, education level, personal beliefs, work-related motivations and levels of perceived social support), but also with issues inherent to the work context, characterized as challenging, demanding and of great responsibility (e.g., the ambiguity of professional role, time spent in a corrective context, supervision, and support from hierarchical superiors, job satisfaction, and commitment. Some authors argue that the constraints placed on caregivers significantly predict high levels of stress and compassion fatigue/burnout manifested by symptoms of depression, anxiety, and physical/psychological exhaustion, with a negative impact on levels of compassion for others, on the performance of professional duties and on the satisfaction of those who are cared for. As a result of these difficulties, self-care practices have been recommended in order to prevent and/or relieve these symptoms in caregivers. Still, also in Portugal, tutelary/educative interventions are predominant, with efforts being focused on the psychological rehabilitation of delinquent youth and disregarding those responsible for that rehabilitation.

Recent research has evaluated the impact of contextual cognitive-behavioral interventions with groups of caregivers. Interventions based on Mindfulness, which aims to promote non-reactive awareness of thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations, and those that promote Self-compassion have stood out for their effectiveness. In particular, the Mindful Self-Compassion Program (MSC) encompasses the two previously described components and, despite being less studied than approaches based solely on Mindfulness, has gathered effectiveness evidence with various groups of caregivers (e.g., nurses, healthcare providers) and on skills considered essential for caregivers to respond to the needs of those they care (e.g., reduction of physical/psychological problems; increases quality/satisfaction with life and levels of empathy and compassion towards others. Recent research has shown that the MSC seems to be effective in reducing the caregiver's feeling of burden with their own suffering and/or with the suffering of others.

Despite the importance of establishing positive and safe relationships between young offenders and their caregivers, studies carried out with caregivers are scarce and focus mainly on assessing their needs and/or difficulties, not aiming to intervene on them. Interventions offered to these caregivers aim to train them to deal with youth behavioral problems, to improve their knowledge on delinquent developmental trajectories, or to improve the physical/relational settings of caregiving contexts.

This work aims to fulfill this gap, by studying the effectiveness of an adapted form of MSC in promoting self-care and satisfaction with life and work, which are considered essential for effective care provision, in caregivers of young people in Portuguese YDC. This clinical trial is a parallel non-randomized controlled trial, designed according to the CONSORT guidelines, and carried out in 4 (out of 6) YDC. It aimed to test the efficacy of an adapted form of the MSC applied to caregivers working on YDC. It is expected that the application of the adapted form of MSC to the YDC caregivers will contribute to an increase in caregivers' physical, emotional, and psychological well-being and job satisfaction. In addition, it is also expected that the improvements mentioned above have a positive impact on the quality of the provided care and the interpersonal functioning of delinquent youth.

All procedures involved in this project (described elsewhere in this form) were carried out according to the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the applicable national laws and regulations. Moreover, all procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra as well as by the Portuguese Juvenile Ministry of Justice.