The overall aim of the consortium EMPOWERYOU is to support foster and adoption families as well as children and adolescents in care to better cope with the history of early traumatic experiences and to empower them against the risk of future victimization. The subproject supported by the mental mHealth will investigate the dynamic interactions between revictimization experiences and social information processing in the everyday lives of affected children and adolescents. The methodology of ambulatory assessment via smartphones is intended to enable insights into these dynamic interactions.

Participating institutions

• Prof. Dr. Kerstin Konrad
• Klinische Neuropsychologie
• Uniklinik RWTH Aachen

Foster care and adoption services provide services to children who have been maltreated or whose parents cannot provide adequate care for them. However, it has been shown that the majority of these children have not only already experienced the devastating impact of neglect and abuse in the past but continue to be at increased risk of different types of subsequent victimization. EMPOWERYOU aims to (1) investigate factors contributing to (re-)victimization experiences in youth in care; (2) develop innovative methods to assess victimization experiences and altered social information processing; (3) co-design two tailored prevention packages using a participative approach; test the efficacy of (4) a multifactorial Internet-based prevention program for primary caregivers of children aged 8 to 13 years and of (5) an Internet-based prevention program to reduce the risk of (re-)victimization in youth in care, aged 14 to 21 years. Risk and protective factors for re-victimization will be tested in the adolescents’daily life by web-based and ecological momentary assessments. Based on these findings, two Internet-based prevention programs will be designed using consensus-based approaches integrating input from all sources of expertise, including the participants themselves, and their efficacy will be evaluated.