The present study evaluates the Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) approach in which families and youth care professionals collaborate with an informal mentor, who is someone adolescents (aged twelve to twenty-three) nominate from their own social network. The informal mentor can be a relative, neighbour or friend, who is a confidant and spokesman for the youth and a co-operation partner for parents and professionals. This approach fits with the international tendency in social work to make use of the strengths of families’ social networks and to stimulate client participation. The current study examined through case-file analysis of 200 adolescents (YIM group n ¼ 96, residential comparison group n ¼ 104) whether the YIM approach would be a promising alternative for out-of-home placement of youth with complex needs. A total of 83 per cent of the juveniles in the YIM group were able to nominate a mentor after an average of thirty-three days. Ninety per cent of the adolescents in the YIM group received ambulatory treatment as an alternative for indicated out-of-homeplacement, while their problems were largely comparable with those of juveniles in Dutch semi-secure residential care. Results suggest that the involvement of important non-parental adults may help to prevent out-of-home placement of adolescents with complex needs.
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With a growing interest in immersive technologies to elevate digital spectating experiences, Virtual Reality (VR) is viewed by many academics and industry actors as the future of esport spectatorship. The majority of the esport fans are the same group that show interest in immersive technologies as VR. This group is, therefore, expected to accept the technology and adopt it in their spectating experience. However, given the fact that this target group is mostly used to utilize interactive VR for gaming purposes, it is not clear how they would experience a passive non-interactive VR experience, and to what extent the technology could contribute to enhancing their viewing experience. This study compared two versions of the same summary recording of the livestream of an esport competition: a 2D version and a VR version: 92 participants watched the esport competition either on a 2D screen or in VR, then they had to answer questions regarding their experience. Compared to 2D, the VR experience scored higher on immersion, presence, social presence, emotional contagion, and enjoyment. This paper confirms the potential of VR to efficiently enhance the digital spectating experiences of esports, while highlighting the need for more research in how to produce the content to best fit VR and increase VR adoption intention.
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