Premium
Contact between young children in long‐term care and their parents
Author(s) -
BackeHansen E.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of social welfare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1468-2397
pISSN - 0907-2055
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2397.1994.tb00051.x
Subject(s) - norwegian , negotiation , discretion , psychology , term (time) , nursing , long term care , developmental psychology , social psychology , medicine , political science , law , philosophy , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics
In this article, the patterns of contact arrangements over time in a sample of Norwegian children in long‐term care are analysed. General legal and professional thinking about the importance of continuity for children in care is contrasted with a view of contact arrangements as multifaced and depending on other considerations than strictly professional ones. Maintaining contact is instead seen as ongoing negotiations between parents, workers, foster parents and children, with the parents as the weakest party. The variation inherent in the process of maintaining contact presupposes the use of discretion in the individual case. On the other hand, professional thinking about the importance of conñtinuity needs to be translated into functional practice guidelines to aid the workers and to stimulate the development of arrangements that are more generally applicable.