132 Chapter 5 patients are scarce (Priebe et al., 2020; Toner, Hickling, Pinto da Costa, Cassidy, & Priebe, 2018). In addition, to our knowledge, there are no studies examining the effects of befriending on treatment outcomes in forensic psychiatric patients. Mentoring, on the other hand, has extensively been studied in forensic populations, such as youth at risk for delinquency, and to a lesser extent in adults returning to society from prison. Two meta-analyses examining young adolescent populations revealed modest effects of mentoring interventions on drug use, delinquency, and aggression among youth at risk for delinquency, as well as moderate effects on a range of psychosocial outcomes (Raposa et al., 2019; Tolan et al., 2014). For adult forensic populations, two studies examining the effectiveness of mentoring interventions found reduced criminal recidivism in reentering offenders receiving the intervention compared to controls (Duwe, 2013, 2018b; Duwe & King, 2013). Nevertheless, researchers emphasize that the evidence is still limited due to the variety of existing mentoring approaches examined and a limited description of the implementation, making it difficult to distinguish between effects (Philip & Spratt, 2007; Raposa et al., 2019; Tolan et al., 2014). Moreover, the effectiveness of mentoring interventions on treatment outcomes in forensic psychiatric patients remains unclear, as previous studies have only examined treatment effects in at-risk youth and (sex) offenders, including participants with and without psychiatric disorders. Therefore, more rigorous studies with clearly defined informal social network interventions are warranted to explore whether a forensic psychiatric population might profit from these interventions. Several reviews showed that informal social network interventions focused on developing a supportive relationship between volunteers and participants (i.e., befriending components), as well as goal-oriented and time-restricted approaches (i.e., mentoring components) improved effectiveness (Philip & Spratt, 2007; Raposa et al., 2019; Tolan et al., 2014). Against this background, we adopted an informal social network intervention based on specific components of befriending and mentoring, entitled forensic network coaching (FNC). FNC was provided by trained volunteer coaches from an informal care institute with longstanding experience in volunteer interventions for psychiatric populations. The primary aim of FNC was to establish a supportive non-professional relationship between volunteer coaches and participants receiving treatment at a forensic outpatient care institute. In addition, participant-coach dyads were stimulated to focus on social network-related goals: enhancing (1) the social networks (i.e., network size and the quality of social relationships), (2) social support, and (3) social participation. In order to promote compliance, we intended to provide an accessible informal social network
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