Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T22:20:40.060Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Using Identity and Recognition as a Framework to Understand and Promote the Resilience of Caregiving Children in Western Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2010

MORTEN SKOVDAL  and
ELENI ANDREOULI
MORTEN SKOVDAL
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE email: [email protected]
ELENI ANDREOULI
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Children around the world have been observed to assume caregiving responsibilities when a parent or other family members fall ill. Whilst the circumstances surrounding caregiving children in Anglophone countries have been looked at in detail, we know relatively little about how children in Africa experience young caregiving. This paper seeks to further our understanding of caregiving children in Africa by looking at how local constructions of childhood can facilitate their agency and resilience, paying particular attention to the role of identity and recognition. The study involved 48 caregiving children from Western Kenya who through individual interviews, photography and draw-and-write compositions articulated their experiences. The views of ten local adults have also been included. A thematic analysis revealed that caregiving children in Kenya are active participants in community life. Their participation is encouraged by local understandings of childhood and recognition of their efforts, enabling the children to construct positive identities that enhance their resilience. The paper argues that the way in which caregiving children in Kenya respond to their circumstances is influenced by a social recognition of their activities and agency. This recognition, mediated by local representations of childhood, allows the children to construct positive social identities that facilitate resilience. We conclude that there is a need for policy and practice on young caregiving, in all countries and contexts, to consider the role of social recognition and local constructions of childhood in shaping the resilience of caregiving children.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 613 - 630
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abebe, T. and Aase, A. (2007), ‘Children, AIDS and the politics of orphan care in Ethiopia: the extended family revisited’, Social Science and Medicine, 64: 5, 2058–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Abebe, T. and Kjørholt, A. (2009), ‘Social actors and victims of exploitation: working children in the cash economy of Ethiopia's South’, Childhood, 16: 2, 175–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abebe, T. and Skovdal, M. (2010), ‘Livelihoods, care and the familial relations of AIDS-affected children in eastern Africa’, AIDS Care, 22: 5, 570–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aldridge, J. (2008), ‘All work and no play? Understanding the needs of children with caring responsibilities’, Children and Society, 22: 253–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aldridge, J. and Becker, S. (1993), Children Who Care: Inside the World of Young Carers, Loughborough, Leicestershire: Loughborough University of Technology, Department of Social Sciences.Google Scholar
Aldridge, J. and Becker, S. (1999), ‘Children as carers: the impact of parental illness and disability on children's caring roles’, Journal of Familiy Therapy, 21: 3, 303–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antonovsky, A. (1979), Health, Stress and Coping, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Antonovsky, A. (1987), Unravelling the Mystery of Health – How People Manage Stress and Stay Well, London: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Attride-Stirling, J. (2001), ‘Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research’, Qualitative Research, 1: 3, 385–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauman, L., Foster, G., Silver, E., Berman, R., Gamble, I. and Muchaneta, L. (2006), ‘Children caring for their ill parents with HIV/AIDS’, Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 1: 1, 56–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauman, L. and Germann, S. (2005), ‘Psychosocial impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on children and youth’, in Foster, G., Levine, C. and Williamson, J. (eds.), Generation at Risk, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bauman, L., Johnson Silver, E., Berman, R. and Gamble, I. (2009), ‘Children as caregivers to their ill parents with AIDS’, in Shifren, K. (ed.), How Caregiving Affects Development: Psychological Implications for Child, Adolescent and Adult Caregivers, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 37–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BBC News (2009), ‘Watching mum die from HIV/Aids, from our own correspondent’, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7968143.stm, retrieved 10/08/09.Google Scholar
Beach, D. (1994), ‘Family care of Alzheimer victims: an analysis of the adolescent experience’, American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, 9: 12–19.Google Scholar
Becker, B. (2000), ‘Young carers’, in Davies, M. (ed.), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Work, Oxford: Blackwell, p. 378.Google Scholar
Becker, S. (2007), ‘Global perspectives on children's unpaid caregiving in the family: research and policy on “young carers” in the UK, Australia, the USA and Sub-Saharan Africa’, Global Social Policy, 7: 1, 23–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackford, K. (1999), ‘A child growing up with a parent who has multiple sclerosis: theories and experiences’, Disability and Society, 14: 5, 673–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006), ‘Using thematic analysis in psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3: 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cluver, L., Gardner, F. and Operario, D. (2009), ‘Effects of caregiving on psychological distress amongst AIDS-orphaned children in South Africa’, Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 4: 3, 185–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooklin, A. (2006), ‘Children as carers of parents with mental illness’, Psychiatry, 5: 32–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cree, V. (2003), ‘Worries and problems of young carers: issues for mental health’, Child and Family Social Work, 8: 4, 301–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahlblom, K., Herrara, A., Peña, R. and Dahlgren, L. (2009), ‘Home alone: children as caretakers in León, Nicaragua’, Children and Society, 23: 43–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dearden, C. and Becker, S. (1995), Young Carers: The Facts, Sutton: Reed Business Pubilshing.Google Scholar
Dearden, C. and Becker, S. (1998), Young Carers in the United Kingdom: A Profile, London: Carers National Association.Google Scholar
Dearden, C. and Becker, S. (2000), Growing Up Caring: Vulnerability and Transition to Adulthood – Young Carers’ Experiences, Leicester: Youth Work Press for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Dearden, C. and Becker, S. (2004), Young Carers in the UK: The 2004 Report, London: Carers UK.Google Scholar
Donald, D. and Clacherty, G. (2005), ‘Developmental vulnerabilities and strengths of children living in child-headed households: a comparison with children in adult-headed households in equivalent impoverished communities’, African Journal of AIDS Research, 4: 1, 21–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duveen, G. (1993), ‘The development of social representations of gender’, Papers on Social Representations, 2: 3, 171–7.Google Scholar
Duveen, G. (2001), ‘Representations, identities, resistance’, in Deaux, K. and Philogène, G. (eds.), Representations of the Social, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 254–70.Google Scholar
Duveen, G. and Lloyd, B. (1986), ‘The significance of social identities’, British Journal of Social Psychology, 25: 3, 219–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, R. (2005), ‘Social networks, migration, and care in Tanzania – caregivers’ and children's resilience to coping with HIV/AIDS’, Journal of Children and Poverty, 11: 2, 111–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, R. and Becker, S. (2009), Children Caring for Parents with HIV and AIDS: Global Issues and Policy Responses, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Gates, M. and Lackey, N. (1998), ‘Youngsters caring for adults with cancer’, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 30: 11–15.Google ScholarPubMed
GOK, (2002), ‘Bondo District Development Plan 2002–2008’, Government of Kenya: Ministry of Finance and Planning, accessible from Bondo District Resource Centre.Google Scholar
Gray, B., Robinson, C. and Seddon, D. (2008), ‘Invisible children: young carers of parents with mental health problems – the perspectives of professionals’, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 13: 4, 169–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hockey, J. and James, A. (2003), Social Identities across the Life Course, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Honneth, A. (1995), The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts, Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hutchby, I. and Moran-Ellis, J. (1998), Children and Social Competence: Arenas of Action, London and Washington, DC: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Jacobson, S. and Wood, F. (2004), ‘Contributions of children to the care of adults with diabetes’, The Diabetes Educator, 30: 820–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, R. (1996), Social Identity, New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joseph, S., Becker, S., Becker, F. and Regel, S. (2009), ‘Assessment of caring and its effects in young people: development of the Multidimensional Assessment of Caring Activities Checklist (MACA-YC18) and the Positive and Negative Outcomes of Caring Questionnaire (PANOC-YC20) for young carers’, Child: Care, Health and Development, 35: 4, 510–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katz, C. (1996), ‘Introduction’, Anthropology and Work Review, 17: 1–2, 3–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenyatta, J. (1979), Facing Mount Kenya: The Traditional Life of the Kikuyu, London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Kesby, M., Gwanzura-Ottemoller, F. and Chizororo, M. (2006), ‘Theorising other, “other childhoods”: issues emerging from work on HIV in urban and rural Zimbabwe’, Children's Geographies, 4: 2, 185–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marková, I. (2006), ‘On the “Inner Alter” in dialogue’, International Journal for Dialogical Science, 1: 1, 125–47.Google Scholar
Martin, R. (2006), ‘Children's perspectives: roles, responsibilities and burdens in home-based care in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Social Development in Africa, 21: 1, 106–29.Google Scholar
McDonald, C. (2009), ‘The importance of identity in policy: the case for and of children’, Children and Society, 23: 241–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, G. H. (1934), Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Moloney, G. and Walker, I. (2007), Social Representations and Identity: Content, Process and Power, 1st edn, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moscovici, S. (1973), ‘Foreword’, in Herzlich, C. (ed.), Health and Illness: A Social Psychological Analysis, London: Academic Press for the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology, pp. ix–xiv.Google Scholar
NASCOP/MOH, . (2008), ‘Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey (KAIS) 2007 – preliminary report’, Nairobi: National AIDS and STI Control Programme/Ministry of Health, available at http://www.nacc.or.ke/2007/images/downloads/kais__preliminary_report_july_29.pdf, retrieved on 24 August 2009.Google Scholar
Noble, G. (2009), ‘“Countless acts of recognition”: young men, ethnicity and the messiness of identities in everyday life’, Social and Cultural Geography, 10: 8, 875–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyambedha, E. and Aagaard-Hansen, J. (2007), ‘Practices of relatedness and the re-invention of duol as a network of care for orphans and widows in western Kenya’, Africa, 77: 4, 517–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, R. (1996), ‘Young carers: challenging the facts and politics of research into children and caring’, Disability and Society, 11: 1, 41–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pakenham, K. I., Chiu, J., Bursnall, S. and Cannon, T. (2007), ‘Relations between social support, appraisal and coping and both positive and negative outcomes in young carers’, Journal of Health Psychology, 12: 1, 89–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piaget, J. (1953), The Origin of Intelligence in the Child, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Porter, K. (1996), ‘The agency of children, work and social change in the South Pare Mountains, Tanzania’, Anthropology and Work Review, 17: 1–2, 8–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potash, B. (1978), ‘Aspects of marital stability in a rural Luo community’, Africa, 48: 4, 380–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raum, O. (1940), Chaga Childhood, London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rifkin, S. (1986), ‘Lessons from community participation in health programmes’, Health Policy and Planning, 1: 3, 240–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson, E. (2000), ‘Invisible carers: young people in Zimbabwe's home-based health care’, Area, 32: 59–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson, E. (2001), ‘Interviews worth the tears? Exploring the dilemmas of research with young carers in Zimbabwe’, Ethics, Place and Environment, 4: 135–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson, E. (2004), ‘Hidden child workers: young carers in Zimbabwe’, Antipode, 36: 2, 227–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson, E. and Ansell, N. (2000), ‘Young carers in Southern Africa: exploring stories from Zimbabwean secondary school students’, in Holloway, S. and Valentine, G. (eds.), Children's Geograpahies: Playing, Living, Learning, London: Routledge, pp. 174–93.Google Scholar
Robson, E., Ansell, N., Huber, U., Gould, W. and van Blerk, L. (2006), ‘Young caregivers in the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa’, Population, Space and Place, 12: 93–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson, E., Bell, S. and Klocker, N. (2007), ‘Conceptualising agency in the lives and actions of rural young people’, in Panelli, S., Punch, S. and Robson, E. (eds.), Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth: Young Rural Lives, New York: Routledge, pp. 135–49.Google Scholar
Shifren, K. (2009), How Caregiving Affects Development: Psychological Implications for Child, Adolescent and Adult Caregivers, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skovdal, M. (2010a), ‘Children caring for their “caregivers”: exploring the caring arrangements in households affected by AIDS in Western Kenya’, AIDS Care, 22: 1, 96–103CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skovdal, M. (2010b), ‘Agency, resilience and the psychosocial well-being of caregiving children: experiences from Western Kenya’, in Evers, S., Notermans, C. and van Ommering, E. (eds.), Children in Focus: A Paradigm Shift in Methodology and Theory? Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Skovdal, M. in press, ‘Community relations and child-led microfinance: a case study of caregiving children in Western Kenya’, AIDS Care.Google Scholar
Skovdal, M. and Ogutu, V. (2009), ‘“I washed and fed my mother before going to school”: understanding the psychosocial well-being of children providing chronic care for adults affected by HIV/AIDS in Western Kenya’, Globalisation and Health, 5: 8, doi:10.1186/1744-8603-5-8.Google ScholarPubMed
Skovdal, M., Ogutu, V., Aoro, C. and Campbell, C. (2009), ‘Young carers as social actors: coping strategies of children caring for ailing or ageing guardians in Western Kenya’, Social Science and Medicine, 69: 4, 587–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Southall, A. (1952), Lineage Formation among the Luo, London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Summerfield, D. (2000), ‘Childhood, war, refugeedom and trauma: three core questions for mental health professionals’, Transcultural Psychiatry, 37: 3, 417–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summerfield, D. (2004), ‘Cross cultural perspectives on the medicalisation of human suffering’, in Rosen, G. (ed.), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, John Wiley.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. (1992), Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition: An Essay, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tugade, M. and Fredrickson, B. (2004), ‘Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86: 2, 320–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
UNDP, (2004), Upscaling Community Conversations in Ethiopia 2004: Unleashing Capacities of Communities for the HIV/AIDS Response, Addis Ababa: UNDP.Google Scholar
Ungar, M. (2008), ‘Resilience across cultures’, British Journal of Social Work, 38: 218–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, C. (2006), ‘Youth participation in photovoice as a strategy for community change’, in Checkoway, B. and Gutiérrez, L. M. (eds.), Youth Participation and Community Change, Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, pp. 147–61.Google Scholar
Welbourn, A. (1995), Stepping Stones – A Training Package of HIV/AIDS Communication and Relationship Skills, Oxford: Strategies for Hope.Google Scholar
Wilson, N., Dasho, S., Martin, A., Wallerstein, N., Wang, C. and Minkler, M. (2007), ‘Engaging young adolescents in social action through photovoice – the Youth Empowerment Strategies (YES!) Project’, Journal of Early Adolescence, 27: 2, 241–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar