Elsevier

Children and Youth Services Review

Volume 56, September 2015, Pages 149-160
Children and Youth Services Review

Professional challenges experienced by child and youth care workers in South Africa

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.07.006Get rights and content

Abstract

The goal of the study was to explore professional challenges of child and youth care workers (CYCWs) in the South African context. The study was carried out within a qualitative approach which incorporated a collective case study design. Purposive sampling was used to include a sample of 93 participants representing child and youth care workers from government and non-government organisations based in rural, semi-urban and urban areas across the six provinces of South Africa. An interview schedule was designed by the researchers to collect qualitative data from 11 focus group interviews. With regard to data analysis, the researchers typically followed the following steps as suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 10): data reduction, data display and drawing and verifying conclusions. The most prominent challenges that the participants have cited are: dealing with client behaviours, lack of tangible and immediate results, poor stakeholder relations, lack of recognition, lack of clarity on the role and title of the CYCW, inconsistent job requirements, lack of professional growth and development opportunities and inadequate working conditions. The conclusion of this study was that CYCWs in South Africa experience a range of professional challenges. Given that the study was situated within an ecological systems theory, the impact of other systems such as poor stakeholder relations in working with individual children (microsystem), working within families (exosystems), working with communities (mesosystem) and working within the broader society (macrosystem) became evident. The researchers overall impression was that the majority of challenges raised emanated from the child and youth care field not yet being fully recognised as a profession at the time the study was conducted. The necessary recommendations to address these professional challenges were made.

Introduction

Child and youth care workers (CYCWs) are professionals who work in the child and youth care (CYC) field another discipline that falls under the social service sector. Gharabaghi (2010) contends that there are at least six common titles that are given to CYC practitioners in North America alone, that is child and youth worker, child care worker, child and youth counsellor, youth worker, youth development worker and direct services worker. It is critical that titles used in a specific country should be clarified and used consistently to avoid confusion and clarify boundaries among social service professionals. According to Barford and Whelton (2010), CYCWs are “front-line human service professionals who work in constant contact with children and youth and who are responsible for their daily living needs” (p. 273). The researchers also acknowledge a shift being made by some authors from using the term ‘CYCWs’ to the term ‘child and youth care practitioners’ (Gharabaghi & Krueger, 2010). These authors explained that the title ‘child and youth care practitioner’ refers to “a diverse group of people, working in a very diverse range of settings, and responding to the expectations of a wide range of employers, bureaucrats, policy makers, and legislative imperatives” (p. 27). Garfat and Fulcher (2011) concurred that the title ‘child and youth care practitioner’ includes many professionals who assume various roles within the CYC fraternity as well as those who use CYC approaches in relating to others.

In South Africa (SA), CYCWs have been working primarily in residential settings (Thumbadoo, 2013). Given South Africas historical past whereby the residential CYC system had been inaccessible to the majority of children and young people (Department of Social Development, 2010), the effects of past inequalities are still being felt by the majority of the black population, particularly a significant number of children and youth in various communities. CYCWs therefore find themselves having to reach previously marginalised children as well as “deal with neighbourhood concerns, changes in the community and patterns of violence and crime” (Gharabaghi, 2008, p. 150). Hence since the 1994 post-apartheid political dispensation, CYCWs have intensified the extension of their services from residential settings to communities in order to address the diverse needs of the majority of the South African children and youth. The goal of this article is to report on the results of a study conducted to explore professional challenges experienced by child and youth care workers in SA.

The Republic of South Africa (RSA) is a democratic state founded on the values that include human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms; as well as non-racialism and non-sexism. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, contains the Bill of Rights, which also provides for social and economic rights. SA became a signatory to various international conventions which include the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Department of Social Development, 2005). These legal frameworks inform policies relating to services to children and youth. Despite these progressive legislative frameworks, the majority of children remain affected by social ills such as poverty. According to Statistics South Africa (2014), “in 2011 children constituted 37.6% of the total population and yet almost half (46%) of all poor people in SA were children” (p. 29).

HIV and AIDS are other social ills that affect children and youth. The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) (2014) estimated that 12.2% of the population (6.4 million persons) was HIV positive in 2012. Jamieson (2013) holds the view that “the HIV and AIDS epidemic and other risk factors have led to a growing number of highly vulnerable children, not just in South Africa but across sub-Saharan Africa” (p. 1). The HIV and AIDS pandemic has clearly affected the constitution of families. In particular, it has exposed many children to a variety of challenges, ranging from neglect to orphanhood, as well as abuse and malnutrition among others. Hence the National Planning Commission (NPC) (2011) asserts that “there will still be a sizeable number of AIDS orphans and children requiring concerted support from the state and communities for decades to come” (p. 29).

According to the HSRC (2014), the overall level of orphanhood in 2012 among those 0 to 18 years of age was 16.9% (maternal, 4.4%; paternal, 9.3%; double, 3.2%). A significantly higher proportion of orphans were found among black Africans (18.9%) than among the other race groups. Similarly, a significantly higher proportion of orphans were observed among those aged 15 to 18 years of age (30.6%) than among all the other age groups (HSRC, 2014). The situation of orphans who have lost both parents can be even direr than the situation of those who have lost only one parent. Such children may find themselves in the position of having to look after one another, making child-headed households even more prevalent. Philips (2011) defines a child-headed household as “a household, consisting of one or more members, in which the role of the principal caregiver has by necessity been taken over by a child under the age of 18 years” (p. 174). It is difficult for children to take care of themselves without any adult support. Among the difficulties these children encounter is the trauma of having lost the stable adults in their lives (Thumbadoo, 2013). Hence section 137(2) of the Children's Amendment Act, 41 of 2007 makes provision that these children should be under the supervision of an adult. Supervision of child-headed households cannot happen in a haphazard manner. There has to be structured systems that will guarantee that these vulnerable children will receive adequate and quality care that they deserve. Innovative measures, which include increasing the number of social service role players such as CYCWs, become even more relevant.

Section snippets

Literature review

Barford and Whelton (2010) alluded to the fact that providing care in residential settings by CYCWs is stressful and challenging “yet little research has gone into better understanding of the difficulties of these workers” (p. 272). This literature review section will therefore focus on areas that contribute to professional challenges experienced by CYCWs.

Theoretical framework

Kelly (2005) states that CYCWs are “uniquely positioned to catalyze change in the lives of the people they serve through meaningful three dimensional relationships that span the ecological framework in which child/youth exists” (p. 35). These three dimensional relationships may include the following overview of ecosystems as presented by Phelan (2004): “… family, peers, school, work, religion, and culture in the microsystem; neighbourhood, career opportunities, local political environment, the

Rationale and problem statement

Gharabaghi (2008) states that CYCWs “are impacted by the social, political and cultural context of their employment spaces, and this has raised myriad professional issues for the discipline” (p. 150). CYC is considered one of the most difficult and emotionally exhausting careers in the human service sector (Krueger, 2002). According to Linton and Forster (1988), CYCWs' clients are “typically handicapped, emotionally or developmentally disabled, aggressive and acting out, multi-problem,

Research methodology

This study was therefore carried out by using a qualitative approach, as the researchers were primarily interested in the meaning participants gave to their life experiences within the CYC field (Fouché & Schurink, 2011, p. 320). The type of research for this study was applied research in that the researchers believed that some of the professional challenges and coping strategies uncovered could benefit CYCWs immediately. Neuman (2012) concurs that applied social research addresses a specific

Discussion of results

The results of the study will be discussed through the format of themes and sub-themes that have emerged. The most prominent themes that the participants have cited are as follows: dealing with clients' behaviours, lack of tangible and immediate results, poor stakeholder relations, lack of clarity on the role and title of the CYCW, inconsistent job requirements, lack of recognition, lack of training and promotion opportunities and inadequate working conditions. Each of these challenges will be

Conclusion of findings

According to Strand and Dore (2009), in general CYCWs experience challenges which include work-related stress from a variety of sources, including heavy caseloads, frequent exposure to negative and often traumatic situations, safety threats, insufficient supervision, and inadequate client resources. The research question of this study was: “What are the professional challenges experienced by CYCWs in South Africa?” This question was satisfactorily answered whereby the following challenges where

Recommendations

In this section generic recommendations, which have arisen from the professional challenges unearthed in this study, will be proposed.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Unisa, as the employer of Lesiba Molepo, for granting him sabbatical leave and finances to conduct this study. Ms Daphney Nkosi, who served as the research assistant, as well as Ms Lindi de Beer who edited the main thesis, should also be acknowledged. Our gratitude also goes to the librarians Ms Shirley Shai (UP), Mr Mogau Maja and Ms Danisile Motsatsi (both from Unisa).

The management, staff and participants from the following organisations, Bosasa, Girls & Boystown

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