A Pilot Participant Observation Study, of the Environment in a Program for Young Offenders from a Conceptual Level Matching Model Perspective

Abstract Conceptual clarification of dimensions in the treatment environment of a residential unit for young offenders is the purpose of the study. The sensitizing ideas of structure, control, contemporaneous, and developmental matching from the Conceptual Level Matching Model (Hunt, 1971) inform the study. Besides specification of the types, quality, and settings of staff-youth interactions, components of a highly structured environment are described. Several strategies promoting the developmental and contemporaneous environment matched to youths who need high structure are illustrated. The tension of implementing those characteristics necessary for contemporaneous and those required for developmental matching is discussed, and certain activities that manage the tension are described.