NCJ Number
168476
Journal
Child and Youth Services Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: (1997) Pages: 1-125
Date Published
1997
Length
125 pages
Annotation
This study clarifies some aspects of juvenile residential staff discontent in their jobs, based on ethnographic interviews with group care workers in Israel.
Abstract
The main data source was a study that consisted of 37 interviews with residential care workers. The interviews obtained descriptions and evaluations of the interviewee's interactions with charges. The first chapter describes the residential care worker and the social organization in which he/she functions. The Israeli model differs in many ways from models of workers and settings in other countries and cultures. The next four chapters focus on descriptions by residential care workers of situations they perceive as stimulating discontent. One chapter addresses their perceptions of the care situation, particularly the power of the youth, which they believe is often directed against them. The next chapter discusses the workers' perception of the identity of the youth who hurt them or in various ways cause them discontent. Another chapter deals with staff perceptions of the identity of those of their colleagues who are particularly vulnerable to being hurt by their charges, followed by a chapter that examines the kinds of actions or inactions by youth that cause the most discontent among workers. A chapter addresses the issue of what strategies they use to control their charges' behavior, so as to enable them, the workers, to cope with their situation and survive at work. The concluding chapter summarizes the nature of the experience of discontent and reflects on residential care workers' chances of coping effectively with the situation of discontent in which they find themselves. Chapter notes, 119 references, and a subject index