| Summary: | The current paper explores the experiences of youth care workers in the context of their relationships with adolescent girls placed in residential care. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 youth care workers in two residential centers in the province of Quebec (Canada). Findings indicate that youth care workers intervening with adolescent girls placed in residential care experience a range of difficult and sometimes negative emotions. Furthermore, the complexity of youth’s needs and profiles, difficulties in engaging parents, and the pessimism of colleagues with regards to placement outcomes are important sources of doubts and concerns for youth care workers in their dealings with adolescent girls placed in residential care. While some youth care workers are confident enough to overcome such fears and still emotionally invest their relationships with adolescent girls, others were overwhelmed with apprehensions to the point of keeping adolescent girls at a distance or even withdrawing from the relationship. In general, our findings suggest the need to offer practitioners the support and the space to question their ‘psychological availability’ with regards to establishing and maintaining trust-based relationship with adolescent girls in residential care.
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