How Did I Know When to Report Physical Neglect? Ghanaian Mothers’ Views on Delinquent Child Maintenance

Abstract

Most Ghanaian mothers left to provide care for their children following separation or a divorce face challenges in meeting their children’s basic needs. To ensure that non-resident fathers are engaged in the caregiving, recourse is usually to social workers at the Department of Social Welfare (DSW). There is evidence that, with the intervention of social workers, some fathers agree to provide regular maintenance to support the care of their children. However, there are no empirical studies in Ghana about how mothers learn to report delinquent child maintenance cases. This qualitative study reports findings from in-depth interviews with 15 mothers in contact with the DSW about how they learnt to report delinquent child maintenance. The study revealed the media, knowledge of existing child welfare legislation and information from previous reporters as the factors that influenced mothers’ decision to seek recourse to the DSW. Therefore, social workers should be aware of these factors which they can utilise to promote the wellbeing of neglected children by encouraging service users’ reportage of parents neglectful behaviours.

Keywords:

• child neglect
• delinquent child maintenance
• mothers
• non-resident fathers
• Ghana

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alhassan Abdullah

Alhassan Abdullah is a PhD Student with the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Hong Kong. Alhassan’s research and practice embraces issues affecting the welfare of children and families. His PhD research focuses on neighbourhood collective efficacy and child neglect intervention from the global south. He has publications in family wellbeing and child welfare issues: child neglect, children in family-based care/kinship care, children in care institutions and child participation in child protection decisions. He also has a minor interest in aged care and disability studies, with special focus on inclusive education. Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Esmeranda Manful

Esmeranda Manful is a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. Her publication and research interests while focusing primarily on child welfare, spans social welfare, gender and social protection issues. She holds a PhD in Social Work from Queens University Belfast.

Ebenezer Cudjoe

Ebenezer Cudjoe is a PhD Student in Social Work with the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong. His research interests and publications involve child and family wellbeing, children in alternative care, kinship care support and inclusive education.

Linda Kissiwaa Boateng

Linda Kissiwaa Boateng is a master’s student in management with the Department of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, China. She has research interest in parenting and management practice of couples, medical social work, aged and social policy intervention.