published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Thesis (MA (Play Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

Ma recherche vise à la vie psychique et sociale des enfants dans les orphelinats chinois. Ces enfants sont souvent abandonnés à cause de leur handicap. Ils sont placés aussi du fait de la défaillance de leurs parents consécutive à un décès, un paupérisme, un emprisonnement, ou des difficultés qu'ils subissent les conduisant à l'abandon de l'enfant. Je m'interroge sur la façon dont les enfants dans les orphelinats chinois vont s'organiser psychiquement et socialement pour faire face à ce double traumatisme : celui de l'abandon, celui du placement. Pour vérifier les effets de la carence affective croisée avec l'abandon et l'institutionnalisation, une recherche exploratoire qui consiste en l'observation sur le terrain et les entretiens avec 3 nurses est réalisée au sein de deux orphelinats chinois. Et puis, le recueil des données s'est déroulé auprès de 16 enfants de 7 à 12 ans avec ces outils méthodologiques: l'entretien auprès des enfants, le dessin et le test des contes. L'analyse des données recueillies est basée sur trois vecteurs qui fondent l'organisation de la vie psychique d'un individu : la représentation de soi, la représentation de son lien à l'autre, les mécanismes de défense et d'adaptation mis en oeuvre. La présentation des résultats est scindée en deux parties : étude globale des données (étude globale des entretiens ; étude globale de dessins ; étude globale du test des contes) et études de cas (7 cas parmi les échantillons sont choisis pour des études approfondies). Les résultats montrent que les enfants présentent des défaillances dans lareprésentation de soi qui se décèlent par les atteintes dans l'estime de soi et par des sentiments négatifs, des défaillances dans la relation à l'autre de l'ordre de la pathologie du lien, et que pour faire face à leur situation, certains enfants peuvent entrer dans un processus de résilience qui s'observe par les mécanismes de défense qu'ils utilisent ou par la référence à un tuteur de résilience. / My research aims to psychic and social life of children in Chinese orphanages. These children are often abandoned because of their disability. They are placed as a result of the failure of their parents following a death, pauperism, imprisonment, or the difficulties they face leading to the abandonment of the child. I wonder how these children in Chineseorphanages will organize themselves socially and psychologically to deal with the double trauma: abandonment and placement. To test the effects of emotional deprivation crossed with the abandonment and institutionalization, an exploratory research, which consists of field observation and interviews with three nurses is carried out in two Chinese orphanages. And then, the data collection was conducted with 16 children from 7 to 12 years with the methodological tools: the interview with children, drawing and testing stories. The analysis of data collected is based on three vectors that underlie the organization of the psychic life of an individual : self-representation, representation of his relationship with others, defense mechanisms implemented. The presentation of results is divided into two parts: comprehensive study of data (comprehensive study of the interviews, comprehensive study of the drawings, comprehensive study of the test stories) and case studies (7 cases among the samples are selected for in-depth studies). The results show that these children have deficiencies in self-representation which are detected by the self-esteem damaged and negative feelings, deficiencies in their relationship with others of the order of pathology of the link, and to deal with their situation, some children may enter into a process of resilience which is observed by the defense mechanisms they use or by reference to a guardian of resilience.

The diploma thesis deals with foster care and contacts with biological parents. The first chapter aims to the importance of family, family ties disorder and the CAN syndrome. The second chapter is focused on the substitute family care and its forms. The third chapter describes the foster care, what are the demands on the personality of the caring person, what the preparation looks like, which are the conditions and course of the foster care. The fourth chapter is focused on the child identity, contacts with biological parents and describes the process of assisted contacts.

The background to this thesis is the dramatic increase of the long-term sickness absence that took place in Sweden from the late 1990s. There was also a shift in the diagnostic pattern with rising mental diagnoses. The overall purpose was to describe and try to understand the process leading to long-term sickness absence from the perspective of the sickness absentees, in order to get a better knowledge base for preventive and rehabilitative actions. The thesis comprises four studies (I-IV). Research methods have been both qualitative and quantitative. In study I data from individual interviews with 32 persons on long-term sick leave due to burnout was analyzed using a grounded theory approach. In study II the study population comprised of 2064 employed sick-listed persons, a sub sample derived from the 2002 national Swedish survey on health, working conditions, life situation and sick-listing. It was analyzed if persons with burnout had higher probability of having experienced the steps in the burnout staircase compared to other diagnostic groups in accordance with the previously suggested hypothesis of "the burnout staircase". Study III comprised of 2521 employed persons, a sub sample derived from the same national survey as in study II. It was analyzed if psychosocial work environment and conflicts and losses in private life independently or in combination were more strongly associated to sickness absence with mental diagnoses as compared to a healthy population. In study IV individual interviews with 25 professional rehabilitation actors and 14 unemployed sick-listed persons were conducted. Data were analyzed according to grounded theory method. The process that led to sicknes absence can be described as an emotional deprivation process, illustrated as a flight of stairs (the burnout staircase) describing a sequence of steps toward sickness absence (I). In accordance with the tested hypothesis persons with burnout to a noticeable higher extent reported expereince of being in the different steps in the burnout staircase compared to sickness absentees with other diagnoses. The model seemed to be valid also for persons with other mental diagnoses (II). Reorganization and conflicts at work as well as adding adverse private life events were associated with increased risk for sickness absence with mental diagnosis (III). Three significant factors behind the weak co-operation between local social insurance and employment agencies were identified: indistinct regulation of co-operation, shifting political goals over time and conflicting goals between agencies (IV). In this thesis it has been suggested that the course of events preceding sickness absence might be understood as a process of emotional deprivation, where the individual is gradually emptied of the life-giving emotional energy revealed in joy, commitment, and empathy. This life-giving force finds its nourishment in safe and secure social relations with others and in a social structure that promotes this type of social relations. The profound changes in the Swedish labour market during the 1990s influenced not just the psychosocial work climate but also the rehabilitation efforts for unemployed sick-listed persons. When the political goal of reducing the unemployment level came to the forefront the indistinct regulation and the conflicting goals in addition were factors that impaired co-ordinated rehabilitation. In this process also the physicians were involved. A labour market problem was turned into a medical problem.

The thesis Cooperation of governmental and non-governmental sector in the care of neglected children has theoretical and research nature and is divided into theoretical and practical parts. The first chapter of the theoretical part focuses on the child neglect in the family. In addition to defining the concept are given the educational implications of child neglect in the family, its risk factors and failure of family in relation to child neglect. The second chapter deals with governmental and non-governmental sector entities, intervening in the area of child neglect. Attention is focused on social work in the department of social and legal protection of children, NGOs working with endangered families and children and socio-educational work with children at risk of neglect in selected schools and school facilities. The third chapter deals with the cooperation of governmental and non-governmental entities in the area, factors that affect their cooperation and rehabilitation of the family as an effective intervention in the family of the endangered child. The practical part is aimed at qualitative data analysis of documents concerning activities and cooperation of Department of social and legal protection of children in Prachatice, local NGOs, which have been granted authority to exercise social and legal...

This thesis is divided into two main parts. The first theoretical part consists of 8 chapters and informs of main topics, on which is based the research in the second part. The chapters are as follows: 1) Characteristics of adolescence age; 2) Definition of leisure; 3) Education outside the classroom; 4) Family; 5) The school as an institution acting on adolescent leisure; 6) Behavioral disorders; 7) The legal basis for the issue of spare time and 8) Juveniles in an educational institute. The main chapters are further divided into subsections, which are in some cases divided into more chapters. In the second practical part are set research objectives and hypotheses based on previous theoretical part. The use of research methods is justified and it also describes the research sample. The validity of the hypotheses was tested by research techniques of the questionnaire, the complementary technique was the interview. The research was focused on mapping the interest of girls living in the Reformatory and girls growing up in a family environment, attending secondary vocational school or vocational school and finding out what are their strongest patterns. It was found that the interests of the compared groups of girls compared to expectations do not differ significantly.