IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v59y2015icp1-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

We are not orphans. Children's experience of everyday life in institutional care in Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Khoo, Evelyn
  • Mancinas, Sandra
  • Skoog, Viktoria

Abstract

In Mexico, institutional care is the most widely used out-of-home placement resource for children who have been either abandoned by their parents or removed from their families to protect them from harm. Currently there are over 29,000 children and adolescents placed in approximately 725 institutions in Mexico. However, little is known about the perspectives of young people about their lives in this setting. We set out to explore young people's descriptions of their lived experience of everyday life in one institutional care setting in Mexico, with a focus on their daily activities and their relationships to significant others. Multiple qualitative methods (adapted Photovoice, mapping and focus groups) were used by researchers from both Mexico and Sweden. In this paper, we explore and analyze their experiences of being ‘almost home’ and living in an ‘almost family’. Life in the institution could be characterized as a highly structured, total institution wherein young people looked for ways to take control over times and places. It was safe but not quite home. Life was also strongly connected to stigma. Although in long-term placements, they refused to be labeled ‘orphans’. The stigma of being called orphans and living in the confines of the institution was countered by the young people's descriptions of importance of feeling safe, being adequately supported and cared for, having a sense of comfort and normality where they are living, and having emotional connections to those they live with. Being listened to and having a say in decisions related to their lives were also strongly recurrent themes in our study. This paper concludes with a discussion of implications for practice with children and youth in institutional care.

Suggested Citation

  • Khoo, Evelyn & Mancinas, Sandra & Skoog, Viktoria, 2015. "We are not orphans. Children's experience of everyday life in institutional care in Mexico," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-9.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:59:y:2015:i:c:p:1-9
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.09.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740915300499
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.09.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James, Sigrid & Alemi, Qais & Zepeda, Veronica, 2013. "Effectiveness and implementation of evidence-based practices in residential care settings," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 642-656.
    2. Gallagher, Bernard & Green, Adam, 2012. "In, out and after care: Young adults' views on their lives, as children, in a therapeutic residential establishment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 437-450.
    3. Fournier, Bonnie & Bridge, Andrea & Pritchard Kennedy, Andrea & Alibhai, Arif & Konde-Lule, Joseph, 2014. "Hear our voices: A Photovoice project with children who are orphaned and living with HIV in a Ugandan group home," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 55-63.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abdullah, Alhassan & Cudjoe, Ebenezer & Manful, Esmeranda, 2018. "Barriers to childcare in Children's Homes in Ghana: Caregivers' solutions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 450-456.
    2. Novelle, Michelle A. & Gonyea, Judith G., 2016. "The availability and role of non-parental identity agents for institutionalized male adolescent social orphans in Colombia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 51-60.
    3. Roche, Steven, 2019. "A scoping review of children's experiences of residential care settings in the global South," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Rohta, Sonam, 2021. "Institutional care for the vulnerable children in India: The perspective of institutional caregivers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eunice Magalhães & Maria Manuela Calheiros & Carla Antunes, 2018. "‘I Always Say What I Think’: a Rights-Based Approach of Young People’s Psychosocial Functioning in Residential Care," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(6), pages 1801-1816, December.
    2. Costa, Mónica & Tagliabue, Semira & Matos, Paula Mena & Mota, Catarina Pinheiro, 2020. "Stability and change in adolescents’ well-being: The role of relationships with caregivers in residential care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. Yanjun Cai, 2017. "Bonding, bridging, and linking: photovoice for resilience through social capital," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 88(2), pages 1169-1195, September.
    4. Kontomichalos-Eyre, Soula A. & Lake, Amelia J. & McGillivray, Jane A., 2023. "Life story work for children and youth in out of home care: A systematic review and synthesis of qualitative studies," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    5. Pascuzzo, Katherine & Cyr, Chantal & Joly, Marie-Pierre & Rollin, Mégan & Cyr-Desautels, Laurence, 2021. "Professional carers’ attachment style and reflective functioning: Links with adolescent behavioral and emotional adaptation in residential care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Hoffnung Assouline, Adena A. & Attar-Schwartz, Shalhevet, 2020. "Staff support and adolescent adjustment difficulties: The moderating role of length of stay in the residential care setting," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    7. Roche, Steven, 2019. "A scoping review of children's experiences of residential care settings in the global South," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Tanana, Michael J. & Vanderloo, Mindy J. & Waid, Jeffrey D., 2018. "Harnessing the potential of administrative data to inform child welfare programming with dynamic visualization methodologies," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 81-90.
    9. Coral Gallardo-Masa & Rosa Sitjes-Figueras & Edgar Iglesias & Carme Montserrat, 2024. "How Adolescents in Residential Care Perceive their Skills and Satisfaction with Life: Do Adolescents and Youth Workers Agree?," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 17(1), pages 261-287, February.
    10. Strijbosch, E.L.L. & Huijs, J.A.M. & Stams, G.J.J.M. & Wissink, I.B. & van der Helm, G.H.P. & de Swart, J.J.W. & van der Veen, Z., 2015. "The outcome of institutional youth care compared to non-institutional youth care for children of primary school age and early adolescence: A multi-level meta-analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 208-218.
    11. Woodgate, Roberta L. & Morakinyo, Oluwatobiloba & Martin, Katrina M., 2017. "Interventions for youth aging out of care: A scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 280-300.
    12. Moore, Tim & McArthur, Morag & Death, Jodi & Tilbury, Clare & Roche, Steven, 2018. "Sticking with us through it all: The importance of trustworthy relationships for children and young people in residential care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 68-75.
    13. Chris Swerts & Laura E. Gómez & Margo Dewitte & Jessica Maeyer & Wouter Vanderplasschen, 2023. "Quality of Life Outcomes for Adolescents in Youth Care," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(5), pages 1987-2011, October.
    14. Watson, Debbie L. & Latter, Sandra & Bellew, Rebecca, 2015. "Adopted children and young people's views on their life storybooks: The role of narrative in the formation of identities," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 90-98.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:59:y:2015:i:c:p:1-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.