Dissertations - 2022

MY SHELTER: CAREGIVERS IN A CHILD RESIDENTIAL CARE INSTITUTION

Eduardo Arruda Sautchuk

Advisor: Prof Dr. Liliana Liviano Wahba
Keywords: caregivers; residential care; child neglect; abandonment; compassion fatigue.

Abstract: This study aimed to comprehend caregivers’ engagement with their work and with sheltered children in a residential care institution, based on the caregivers’ report. The investigation of their experience may increase comprehension of the difficulties faced and of the emotional impact that working with sheltered children has. Grounded theory method was utilized. The participants were 10 caregivers of a residential care institution that shelters children from 0 to 5 years old in Curitiba, Paraná. An individual intensive interview was carried out with each participant, composed of open questions to investigate: work routine experience; affective aspects of attachment formation and disruption between caregivers and children; caregivers’ life history aspects and feelings about their work and the children. The information of interviews transcriptions was submitted to lexical analysis through IRaMuTeQ software and to content analysis, supported by ATLAS.ti software. The analysis procedures consisted in stages of free coding, memos writing, category creation and concepts diagramming. As the results of the integrated analysis, five themes emerged: work meaning; affective interactions and receptivity; future expectations; emotional resonance; personal history. Caregivers’ engagement with their work is strongly influenced by the affective relationship established with children, which intensifies emotional resonance processes. Abandonment experience, lived or witnessed, was identified throughout the themes and constitutes an important aspect of work, influencing their emotional states and quality of life. Compassion fatigue and satisfaction fatigue phenomena were identified in the discourse. In conclusion, caregiver care in the institutional childcare context should attend to their subjectivity and emotional aspects.