Psychological and educational adjustment among adolescents in a residential educational centre in Latin America

Abstract

Residential schools are aimed to provide a chance of benefiting from secondary education to adolescents without access to formal education, due to family difficulties and/or the absence of educational services in their hometown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of a Peruvian rural residential school as an educative scenario. For this purpose, quality of live, self-esteem, social skills, school performance and behavioral problems were evaluated in a sample of 28 adolescents living in residential schools. A comparison group made up by 20 adolescents living with their families was included. The results showed a medium-low level of quality of the residential school as an educative scenario, although no negatives consequences for psycho-educational adjustment were observed (except for social self-esteem and school performance). These results are discussed according to empirical evidence on the topic.