Abstract:

The objective of the research is on the basis of the experience of the employees of socialization centres to reveal the characteristics of the socio-educational assistance to the family when medium-level of supervision is imposed for the child.

The method of semi-structured interview was applied. The questions of the interview covered the following topics:
1) Problems arising in the family and the need for socio-educational assistance;
2) The character of the assistance which is rendered to the family;
3) The significance of the assistance which is rendered to the family. The analysis of the research data was performed by applying the method of content analysis.

The research results revealed that the problems of the families, the children of which are educated in the socialization centre, are most often related to disturbed relationships between family members, the lack of parenthood skills and an inappropriate parenting style. Parents, when their child is in the socialization centre, need a professional continuous social, psychological assistance which assists in strengthening the functioning of the family, encourages the motivation and responsibility of the parents and assists in overcoming the problems arising in the process of resocialization of the child. The research result revealed that parents are rendered an individualized assistance in socialization centres taking into account their needs. During the first meeting, parents are acquainted with the specialists, the assistance rendered by them, it is sought to clarify what assistance parents need and the possibilities to render the assistance are discussed. In socialization centres, parents are provided consultations by pedagogues, a social pedagogue and a psychologist, workshops on the topics of parenting, the raising of legal awareness and parenthood skills. The employees of socialization centres delegate socio-educational assistance to other authorities existing in the place of residence of parents (guardians). The factor of formal engagement of parents in the resocialization process at the level of municipalities might be an additional and inner factor in order that responsible authorities, when implementing the program of the development of parenthood skills, would realize the direct participation of parents during the period of the implementation of the measure of medium-level supervision as an integral factor of medium-level measure and would create financial capacities for that and would render psychological, social and pedagogical assistance. The employees of socialization centres perceive the significance of the rendered socio-educational assistance to parents (guardians) in several respects: benefit to the child (it has influence on the emotional state of the child, his behaviour, it helps the child overcome difficulties and improves his achievements), benefit to parents (it improves their self-esteem, brings children and parents together, parents learn more on how to help their child, they are better prepared to rear their child after his release from the socialization centre), benefit to specialists who implement the measure of medium-level supervision (it assists in knowing the child and his environment better and developing the competences of the collaboration with the family, and looking for innovative methodologies of the work with the family, raises their qualifications).

Keywords:

Juvenile delinquency, medium-level supervision of the child, socio-educational assistance, family socialization centre.