Residential Treatment for Children & Youth

Navigating Transitions into, within, and out of Residential Care

This special issue seeks to advance international and interdisciplinary knowledge on transitions in residential care. Transitions involving entry into, placement changes, and exit from residential care represent critical developmental and systemic turning points for children and youth. These transitions are often associated with instability, relational disruption, and heightened vulnerability, but can also create opportunities for repair, resilience, and relational permanence when supported by evidence-informed and trauma-responsive practices.

Children and young people entering residential care frequently present histories of cumulative adversity, developmental trauma, attachment disruption, and mental health needs. Transition processes must therefore be understood and studied through trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive frameworks, emphasizing relational safety, predictability, participation, and continuity of care.

This special issue welcomes empirical articles using different methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods) and diverse informants (children, youth, staff, families). Literature reviews, including scoping, systematic, meta-analytic, or narrative reviews, are also timely. Regardless of the type of article, authors should include a section addressing implications for policy, practice, and research.

The following topics are particularly encouraged:

• Transitions Into Residential Care (e.g., children, youth, and family experiences of entry into care, emergency vs. planned placement trajectories).
• Transitions within the Residential Care System (e.g., impact of placement instability and cumulative moves, organizational and systemic drivers of moves).
• Transitions Out of Residential Care (e.g., family reunification processes and supports, transition planning for permanency, preparation for autonomy and independent living, aftercare and extended care models).
• Trauma-Sensitive and Trauma-Informed Transition Practices (e.g., trauma-responsive transition planning, attachment-informed practices, children and youth participation and voice in transition decisions, professionals as critical agents in supporting these transitions).