G4 Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
Julkista lastensuojelun perhetyötä yksityiskodissa (2019)


Pohjolainen, A. (2019). Julkista lastensuojelun perhetyötä yksityiskodissa [Doctoral dissertation]. Jyväskylän yliopisto. JYU dissertations, 51. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7646-0


JYU authors or editors


Publication details

All authors or editorsPohjolainen, Auli

eISBN978-951-39-7646-0

Journal or seriesJYU dissertations

eISSN2489-9003

Publication year2019

Number in series51

Number of pages in the book1 verkkoaineisto (178 sivua) :

PublisherJyväskylän yliopisto

Place of PublicationJyväskylä

Publication countryFinland

Publication languageFinnish

Persistent website addresshttp://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7646-0

Publication open accessOpenly available

Publication channel open accessOpen Access channel


Abstract

The purpose of this doctoral dissertation in social work is to illustrate the open care child
welfare support that is conducted in private homes. Family work in this study is seen as
essentially morally charged work, because the study’s theoretical background approaches
social work from a perspective of reflective, relation-based theory. The object of the study is
parents’ and family workers’ experiences of family work, especially within a private home
setting.
The research data were collected from eight family workers and eight parents from
six different families. These individual interviews were conducted as thematic interviews
in 2014 and 2015. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis, adapting a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. The concept of moral agency served as an interpretational context while the thematic interviews were analysed by forming categories,
called ’meaning entities’.
These meaning entities attached to family work and home by the parents and the
family workers were mainly similar. However, some tension can be perceived from the
interview data. Both parties regarded respect, trust, joint planning and guided support as
central. According to my findings, relations of recognition and support are the working resources of public child welfare, which strengthen the identity of parenting and citizenship.
Family workers guided family members towards different services. However, these efforts
were recognized to be outside the scope of ordinary family work. Among the parents, this
citizenship-supporting service coordination was seen as an extra benefit. Reflective professionalism is a prerequisite of moral agency. The parents emphasised the traits of family
workers that can affect the work. These included confidentiality, patience and flexibility in
a family´s everyday life situations. Good family work can be described as jointly realised
action that is situational and engages the parents. From the perspective of the development
of moral integrity, the parents and the family workers had differing views on values, which
proved to be challenging in the homes. The tensions that appeared related to education
practices, working with other parties and/or the family members’ feeling of control at the
beginning of family work. The gender of the family worker was perceived to be linked to
the development of the children’s identity development. There were also differences in the
experiences of privacy between the parents and the family workers. Differences related to
the openness of the home environments and the topics of conversation.
According to the findings, relations of recognition provide a basis for accepting support in the situational, unforeseen, charged and multifaceted child welfare family work
conducted in private homes. Family work as institutional support and the supervision
work of child welfare can be seen as a social virtue, the goal which is to enable families to
live a good daily life and highlight the child’s best interests.


Keywordsfamily workchild welfarechild protectionnon-institutional social carehomeparentssocial workersmoralshuman agencyprivacy

Free keywordsfamily work; child welfare; child protection; moral agency; privacy; phenomenology; hermeneutics


Contributing organizations


Ministry reportingYes

Reporting Year2019


Last updated on 2024-11-03 at 14:25