Most of them care about us, but not everyone does! Creating a positive living group climate in German youth prison − A longitudinal study

This study represents the first longitudinal data of living group climate in a Germany youth detention centre in terms of the support from staff, opportunities for growth, repression and group atmosphere among inmates. Participants were male adolescents (N = 709) living in supervised living groups. They completed the German version of the PGCI at 8 different moments over a period of 5 years, from 2014 to 2019. Four separate piecewise multilevel regression analyses revealed a significant increase of support. Repression decreased significantly during the first three measurement waves, and subsequently showed a slight but significant increase, while neither growth nor group atmosphere significantly changed. The present results are novel in their character as they explicitly add to the limited body of knowledge on longitudinal changes in living group climate in youth detention facilities.