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Professional dilemmas and occupational constraints in child welfare workers' relationships with children and youth in foster care

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  • Lindahl, Robert
  • Bruhn, Anders

Abstract

At the same time as the number of child and youth placements in foster care is increasing in Sweden, some serious deficiencies have been highlighted, such as instability in placements and shortcomings in the social services' monitoring. Because the child welfare workers are ultimately responsible for these children's situation, understanding how they handle their multi-dimensional occupational role is crucial. The aim of this article is to study child welfare workers' individual and collective experiences of and expectations about their occupational role and responsibilities in their administrative and relational work with children and youth in foster care. Individual interviews with child welfare workers from a previous evaluation of a national pilot project, and two focus groups with child welfare workers, constitute the empirical basis. Theoretically the article explores central concepts such as sub-roles, dilemmas, professionalism, and functional specificity. The results show that the child welfare workers are burdened by a heavy workload, but that the prerequisites and the obstacles they face also must be understood in relation to prevailing contradictions and dilemmas in their occupational role. Even though the child welfare workers stress that professionalism is about putting relational work first, their activity is dominated by administrative tasks and functional specificity.

Suggested Citation

  • Lindahl, Robert & Bruhn, Anders, 2018. "Professional dilemmas and occupational constraints in child welfare workers' relationships with children and youth in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 333-340.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:88:y:2018:i:c:p:333-340
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.03.039
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ward, Harriet, 2009. "Patterns of instability: Moves within the care system, their reasons, contexts and consequences," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 1113-1118, October.
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    1. Harmon-Darrow, Caroline & Burruss, Karen & Finigan-Carr, Nadine, 2020. "“We are kind of their parents”: Child welfare workers’ perspective on sexuality education for foster youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).

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