Full Description
Learn what children living in group homes need most!
Pain, Normality, and the Struggle for Congruence: Reinterpreting Residential Care for Children and Youth presents the results of a 14-month study of 10 staffed group homes in British Columbia. The book uses grounded theory to construct a theoretical model that speaks to the primary challenge care workers face each dayresponding to pain and pain-based behavior in residents. It combines participant observations, transcribed interviews, and document analysis to develop a core theme of congruence, several major psychosocial processes, and 11 interactional dynamics identified as being fundamental to group home life. The study brings to light several neglected aspects of residential care and proposes new directions in policy development, education, practice, and research to create an integrated and accessible framework for understanding group home life for youths.
Pain, Normality, and the Struggle for Congruence: Reinterpreting Residential Care for Children and Youth is a full and rigorous examination of the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of residential group care. The studyconducted during a time of heightened sensitivity to the rights of children and increased emphasis on accountability and outcome measurementreveals a core theme of congruence, focusing on consistency, reciprocity, and coherence. The book examines the major elements of this theme, including:
creating an extra-familial living environment
developing a sense of normality
listening and responding with respect
establishing a structure, routine, and expectations
offering emotional and developmental support
respecting personal space and time
discovering potential
communicating a framework for understanding
and much more!
Pain, Normality, and the Struggle for Congruence: Reinterpreting Residential Care for Children and Youth provides professionals concerned with the development and treatment of children and young people with a unique understanding of group home life and work.
From the Foreword, by Dr. Barney Glaser:
I am honored and delighted to be asked by Jim Anglin to write the foreword to this grounded theory text... The purpose of this grounded theory is to construct a theoretical framework that would explain and account for well-functioning staffed group homes for young people, that in turn could serve as a basis for improved practice, policy development, education and training, research, and evaluation. THE READER WILL SEE THAT ANGLIN HAS ACHIEVED HIS GOAL WITH ADMIRABLE SUCCESS. . . . HIS GROUNDED THEORY TRULY MAKES A SCHOLARLY CONTRIBUTION TO THE LITERATURE.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Historical and Contemporary Issues in Residential Care for Children and Youth
Chapter 2. The Staffed Group Home Study: Research Method and Implementation
Chapter 3. A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Group Home Life and Work
Chapter 4. Congruence in Service of the Children's Best Interests: The Central Theme of Group Home Life and Work
Chapter 5. Creating an Extrafamilial Living Environment: The Overall Task of a Group Home
Chapter 6. Responding to Pain and Pain-Based Behaviour: The Major Challenge for Staff
Chapter 7. Developing a Sense of Normality: The Primary Goal for Residents
Chapter 8. Through the Lens of the Theoretical Framework: A Review of Selected Residential Child and Youth Care Literature
Chapter 9. Implications for New Directions in Child and Youth Care Policy Development, Education, Practice, and Research
References
Index
