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Five years in care: documented lives and time trajectories in child welfare.
- Source :
- Child & Family Social Work; May2015, Vol. 20 Issue 2, p202-210, 9p
- Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- Child welfare practice is temporally structured and includes a variety of follow-up activities. Practice-based follow-up has not, however, been much explored when studying children's paths in the child welfare system. This paper is based on a study of children (103) who were taken into care in 2006 in 10 Finnish municipalities and their paths in care until 2011. The social workers' institutional knowledge of their 'own' clients comprises the core of the research design. The paper reflects on the nature of this data from the point of view of the notions of temporality. The analysis highlights four temporal trajectories used in retrospective analysis of children's paths in care: the linear time trajectory of the decisions and changes in the institutional positions, the temporally fragmentary trajectory of childhood and youth, the circular time trajectory of professional understanding of the child's path and the silent time trajectory. Each one documents the children's paths differently; the linear one tends to be the 'natural' and most easily available trajectory and consequently, the children's paths are documented via decisions and institutional positions. The analysis suggests that more attention should be given to the complexity of time and temporality when studying children's paths in child welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- BEHAVIOR disorders in children
CHILD development
CHILD welfare
DECISION making
EXPERIENCE
FOSTER children
FOSTER home care
FOSTER parents
LONGITUDINAL method
MEMORY
PROFESSIONS
RESEARCH funding
SOCIAL case work
SOCIAL services
SOCIAL workers
SURVEYS
PROFESSIONAL practice
FAMILY relations
QUANTITATIVE research
NARRATIVES
SOCIAL services case management
RETROSPECTIVE studies
SOCIAL worker attitudes
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 13567500
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Child & Family Social Work
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 102012620
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12069