ABSTRACT : Decision-making as educational moment.

This research focuses on decisions concerning adolescents in difficulty in the setting of residential childcare. What are the conditions which might make these moments educational, when the adolescent is trying hard to make his point of view accepted (power of persuasion), while his parents exert their autority in determining the choices (power of decision) ? As concerns the role of the team of care workers, we make the hypothesis that it exerts an appropriate power of influence if it favours, on the one hand, the negotiation between the adolescent and his parents, on the other hand, the exercise of the parental authority. From which stems the interest of a synergistic development of these three powers. During interviews, the concerned persons are invited to describe the decision-making process relative to the organization of the holidays of five adolescents. It emerges from the analysis of the data gathered that the synergism supposes an unconditional prompting of the family. When the care workers are in the parental role, this only allows the development of a power persuasion by the adolescent but does not contribute to the emergence of a family negotiation or to the exercise of the parents' power. The reference to the notion of empowerment allows us to specify the benefits and the forms of partnership between the care workers and family members.

Keywords : adolescent in difficulty, residential education, decision-making, empowerment.