Child care workers' management of sexualised behaviour displayed by children in residential child and youth care centres

摘要

Children have been shown to respond differently to the hurt that they suffer at the hands of others. Some of these responses involve internalised behaviours (i.e., repression of feelings, bodily symptoms, etc.); whilst others hurt manifest as externalised behaviours, such as physical attacks on others. These may include sexualised behaviours. The latter is particularly common amongst (but not restricted to) children who have been sexually abused (The American Psychological Association, 2001). For the purposes of this study a distinction is made between developmentally appropriate sexual behaviour and non normative sexualised behaviour which evoke complaints from and discomfort in those involved in the behaviour. The manifestation of these sexualised behaviours is especially pronounced amongst children in institutional care; and hence, it calls for constructive and effective management by the child care workers who are primarily responsible for their safe care and behaviour modification whilst in the institution. This qualitative study – with an exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design – served to explore how the child care workers’ effective management of such behaviours could be enhanced, so that the emotional wellbeing of both the “offender” and the “perpetrator” of this behaviour can be promoted. A non-probability purposive sampling technique was employed to recruit research participants from three different child and youth care centres in Port Elizabeth. A total number of 10 research participants were involved and data was collected up to the point of data saturation. Thematic content analysis was utilised for the analysis of the data and the necessary strategies were employed to enhance the trustworthiness of the data and to meet all the ethical requirements of the study. The main findings alert to the key requirements of Child and Youth Care Workers; it confirms the occurrence of sexualised behaviours; the urgent need for a consistent approach to the management of such behaviours; and for enhanced team work between the helping professionals in the team. The value of the study is embedded in the contributions it can make to practical interventions for children in institutional care, and to the sparse body of knowledge in this area.