Children in Self-Care: Homeless in the Afternoons or Socially Provided for?¹

1 This study was carried out with the Self-Care Research Team including Professors Janine Beaudichon, Pierre Coslin, and Annick Cartron of the Laboratoire de Psychologie du Developpement et de L’educatfan de Uenfant, Universite Paris V, La Sorbonne and was funded by the French Ministry of Education.

Abstract

This study examines the adaptation of children in self-care compared with children in adult-care to out-ofschool relationship contexts and solitude. Thirty-six French children aged 9-11 years were interviewed about their out-afschool activities and responses to solitude. The theoretical framework integrates weiss’ (1974) notion of relational provisions and Ullsiner’s (1984, 1987) constraint theory to understand individual adaptation in the social and solitary contexts of self-care. Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed complexity and variability of the strnctural organization and children’s adaptation in self-care contexts. Although self-care children reported more activities outdoors alone than did adult-care children, the development of the capacity to be alone may protect children’s psychological well-being. Moreover, the inherent structure of self-care, i.e., parental absence, demanded that children lead the promotion oftheir own development in self-care contexts. In a few extreme instances, children were indeed “homeless in the afternoon.”

Key Words:

• self-care children
• latchkey children
• relational provisions
• solitude
• social contexts

Notes

1 This study was carried out with the Self-Care Research Team including Professors Janine Beaudichon, Pierre Coslin, and Annick Cartron of the Laboratoire de Psychologie du Developpement et de L’educatfan de Uenfant, Universite Paris V, La Sorbonne and was funded by the French Ministry of Education.