ABSTRACT
The SOS Kinderdorf and the Yugoslav Djete Dom organized on the familial or semifamilial model are excellent places to test some of Skeels' conclusions. Both of these facilities accept relatively young children—some from reasonably normal and some from deprived backgrounds—and surround them with many caring persons. A small child entering the Kinderdorf finds a mutti and some older brothers and sisters. They nourish and support, set examples and challenge, praise and chastise. Similarly, the Yugoslav children's home gives the small child an instant human environment of near peers and others much more mature and authoritative.
Though all the children who enter these programs at an early age must suffer severely from the traumas of separation, and though many of them have had very difficult early familial experiences, they function well as teenagers in the two institutions. In this paper the adolescent performance of 12 Kinderdorf and 13 Djete Dom children is described, and they are compared with children admitted to these facilities later in life and with those living with their parents.
