Adolescent females in Therapeutic Residential Care (TRC) often follow a relational trauma pathway characterised by internalising psychopathology and cumulative interpersonal victimisation. Despite these gendered trajectories, prevailing care models often remain gender-neutral and deficit-focused. In response, this preliminary exploratory study adopted the Dual-Factor Model of mental health to investigate profiles of functioning among females in Portuguese TRC. The sample consisted of 21 females (aged 14–23). A two-step cluster analysis examined the interplay between psychopathology, life satisfaction, maltreatment history, family contact, and the Milieu Factor. The latter, a novel measure, was developed specifically for this study to operationalise young people’s satisfaction with their social network. The analysis identified two distinct profiles: ‘Sub-clinical-Higher SWL-Socially Vulnerable’ (76.2%) and ‘Clinical-Lower SWL-Cumulative Risk’ (23.8%). Psychopathology most significantly predicted cluster differentiation, followed by maltreatment history and the Milieu Factor. While the ‘Clinical’group exhibited severe clinical symptoms and cumulative trauma, they paradoxically reported significantly higher satisfaction with their support network. Conversely, the larger ‘Sub-clinical’ profile showed resilience through higher life satisfaction but reported significantly lower support network satisfaction. These findings challenge the assumption of homogeneous needs in TRC and suggest that the majority of females may struggle with unmet relational needs. Given the small sample size, these results offer preliminary heuristics for identifying mental health profiles and advocate for an approach that moves beyond the deficit and one-size-fits-all model.

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Therapeutic residential care,Dual-factor model,Non-specific and specific treatment factors,Milieu factor,Two-step cluster analysis

• Clinical Medicine - Medical and Health Sciences
• Sociology - Social Sciences