The effects of At Home in the Street (TOS): results of a Dutch community intervention in a four-year study

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-03-2017-0005
Pages32-46
Published date20 March 2017
Date20 March 2017
AuthorHarrie Jonkman,Ron van Wonderen
Subject MatterHealth & social care,Vulnerable groups,Children's services,Sociology,Sociology of the family,Children/youth,Parents,Education,Early childhood education,Home culture,Social/physical development
The effects of At Home in the Street
(TOS): results of a Dutch community
intervention in a four-year study
Harrie Jonkman and Ron van Wonderen
Abstract
Purpose Research shows that growing up in unsafe neighbourhoods is a risk for the social and emotional
development of children. At Home in the Street (TOS) is a community intervention that aims to create a clear,
decent and emotionally safe environment for children in neighbourhoods. This programme is implemented in
many communities in the Netherlands. The purpose of this paper is to determine the effectiveness of TOS.
Design/methodology/approach This study has a longitudinal (three waves), quasi-experimental design,
which includes 644 children who live in either ten experimental or ten control neighbourhoods. The effects are
examined by using the strengths and difficulties (SDQ) instrument and propensity score matching control
techniques. Multilevel methods were used on multi-imputed data sets.
Findings The intervention does not have a statistically significant effect on the social and emotional
development of children. However, exploratory analysis suggests that it may have a positive effect if the
intervention is used more intensively.
Research limitations/implications Future research may be conducted for a longer period to identify
more precisely the different effects of the intervention on the development in SDQ scores in relation to age
and gender.
Practical implications The intervention may be effective in the case of high programme quality.
Developers should therefore continue to invest in programme quality. This also applies to other social
interventions: in order to accomplish effective social investments, these should be combined with sound
research, as shown in this study.
Originality/value This study suggests that community interventionsmay be effective if used with particular
regularity. The authors have also demonstrated that implementing this type of complex research is feasible
if certain methods are used that help overcome these challenges.
Keywords Multilevel analysis, Social development, Propensity score matching, Emotional development,
Community intervention, Effect study
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Playing outside is an important factor in childrens physical, cognitive and social development
(Lightfoot et al., 2012). It should be the most normal thing in the world, but it is not. Fewer and
fewer children play in the outdoor area (Emmelkamp, 2004; Bouw and Karsten, 2006).
One important reason for this is that many parents and children consider the outside
environment to be unsafe, and parents keep their children off the streets (Emmelkamp, 2004).
This is certainly the case for children who grow up in disadvantaged situations. Many parents
want to keep their children away from the risks offered by the street, so their children may grow
up safe and healthy. Several studies show that growing up in a disadvantaged neighbourhood is
related to various forms of behavioural problems, such as antisocial behaviour, violence and
delinquency. These manifest themselves particularly strongly in the phase of transition to young
adolescence (Jonkman, 2012; Junger-Tas et al., 2008; Schneiders and Drukker, 2003). Impacts
of neighbourhood on the development of children and youth have been the subject of research
Received 26 March 2017
Accepted 28 March 2017
The authors would like to thank
the Netherlands Organization for
Health Research and Development
ZonMW for funding the study;
Stichting Thuis Op Straat for
facilitating the implementation of
the study; and prof. Dr J. Hox
(Professor of Social Science
Methodology at the Faculty of
Social Sciences of Utrecht
University) for his methodological
and statistical advice. Support
from the Netherlands Organization
for Health Research and
Development (ZonMW, Project
Number 15700.3003) to the
authors is gratefully acknowledged.
Funding: this study was funded
by the Netherlands Organization
for Health Research and
Development ZonMW, Project
Number 157 003 003.
Competing interests: the authors
declare that they have no
competing interests.
Harrie Jonkman is a Senior
Researcher at the Department
of Youth, Family and Education,
Verwey-Jonker Institute,
Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Ron van Wonderen is based at
the Department of Youth,
Family and Education,
Verwey-Jonker Institute,
Utrecht, The Netherlands.
PAG E 32
j
JOURNAL OF CHILDREN'S SERVICES
j
VOL. 12 NO. 1 2017, pp. 32-46, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660 DOI 10.1108/JCS-03-2017-0005

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