IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v66y2016icp161-169.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Caregiver perceptions of children in their care and motivations for the care work in children's homes in Ghana: Children of God or children of white men?

Author

Listed:
  • Darkwah, Ernest
  • Daniel, Marguerite
  • Asumeng, Maxwell

Abstract

The perceptions and motivations that workers have in their work and work environment are important determinants of the quality of work they do. For people who work in residential institutions where children who have lost the care of their parents receive care, these perceptions and motivations become a crucial part in determining the quality of services or care the children are given. This study set out to explore the perceptions and motivations of caregivers in the institutional context in Ghana. Adopting a qualitative, phenomenological approach, data were collected from 35 caregivers in two children's homes in Ghana through participant observations, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. It emerged that caregivers perceived the children in their care first as children of God and then as children of white men and were predominantly motivated by their religious convictions to keep doing ‘the work of God’. Other motivations included personal life situations and economic aspects of the job. Implications for the workers and children in this environment are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Darkwah, Ernest & Daniel, Marguerite & Asumeng, Maxwell, 2016. "Caregiver perceptions of children in their care and motivations for the care work in children's homes in Ghana: Children of God or children of white men?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 161-169.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:66:y:2016:i:c:p:161-169
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.05.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740916301517
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.05.007?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. Bettmann, Joanna E. & Mortensen, Jamie M. & Akuoko, Kofi O., 2015. "Orphanage caregivers' perceptions of children's emotional needs," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 71-79.
    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. Seth Christopher Yaw Appiah & Inge Kroidl & Michael Hoelscher & Olena Ivanova & Jonathan Mensah Dapaah, 2019. "A Phenomenological Account of HIV Disclosure Experiences of Children and Adolescents from Northern and Southern Ghana," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Frimpong-Manso, Kwabena, 2018. "Building and utilising resilience: The challenges and coping mechanisms of care leavers in Ghana," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 52-59.
    4. Roelen, Keetie & Delap, Emily & Jones, Camilla & Karki Chettri, Helen, 2017. "Improving child wellbeing and care in Sub-Saharan Africa: The role of social protection," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 309-318.
    5. Proeschold-Bell, Rae Jean & Molokwu, Nneka Jebose & Keyes, Corey L.M. & Sohail, Malik Muhammad & Eagle, David E. & Parnell, Heather E. & Kinghorn, Warren A. & Amanya, Cyrilla & Vann, Vanroth & Madan, , 2019. "Caring and thriving: An international qualitative study of caregivers of orphaned and vulnerable children and strategies to sustain positive mental health," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 143-153.
    6. Liu, Xiaoqian & Whetten, Kathryn & Prose, Neil S. & Eagle, David & Parnell, Heather E. & Amanya, Cyrilla & Vann, Vanroth & Dubie, Misganaw Eticha & Kaza, Venkata Gopala Krishna & Tzudir, Senti & Proes, 2020. "Enjoyment and meaning in daily activities among caregivers of orphaned and separated children in four countries," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(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. Kari Vik (KV) & Vickfarajaeli Zebedayo Daudi (VZD) & Lusajo Joel Kajula (LJK) & Rolf Rohde (RR) & Omary Said Ubuguyu (OSU) & Joseph Ndukusi Saibulu (JNS), 2018. "Infancy and Caring," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 30(1), pages 105-125, March.
    2. Elena Valerievna Golubeva & Irina Valerievna Golubeva, 2015. "Deformations in Economic Consciousness of Children Raised in Orphanages," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(3), pages 21582440156, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Sutinah, & Aminah, Siti, 2018. "Child abuse and neglect in orphanages in EAST JAVA Province (Study on forms of child abuse, anticipatory efforts developed children and the role of the orphanage)," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 24-29.
    5. 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).

    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:66:y:2016:i:c:p:161-169. 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.