Perceptions and Implementation of a Child Perspective among Professionals Working with Vulnerable Children who Have Experienced War and Crises

ABSTRACT

The child perspective, i.e. an adult understanding and viewing of a child, is frequently being discussed. However, it is open to individual interpretation as the concept is only vaguely defined. This paper focuses on factors characterising the child perspective held by adults in an organisation which treats and supports adults and children who endure mental illness as a result of war, torture, and/or life as refugees. A cross-sectional descriptive design involving qualitative data was used. Data were gathered at the Health and care department, Swedish Red Cross, through open-ended questions in a web-based questionnaire answered by 69 employees. Additionally, ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with key individuals who represented a variety of professional functions within the department. The data were combined to form a united data set used for analysis. A thematic analysis was undertaken, based on the descriptions by Braun and Clarke, and three major themes emerged. Two of these described the professionals’ perceptions in terms of a child perspective. The first, Considering the child as an individual, focused on how a child perspective encouraged the employees to create a friendly atmosphere and to seek out children’s perspectives. The second, Acknowledging the child’s rights, highlighted a view of the child perspective as involving the safeguarding of children and the provision of “voice”. The third theme, Ambiguity in implementation, described the operationalisation of the child perspective in daily work, illustrating both favourable and problematic factors. To conclude, the understanding gained by this paper could be used to raise awareness of, concretise and operationalise a child perspective in other organisations in which adults encounter children. Likewise, this understanding could be used for ongoing research, knowledge development and further discussions in terms of child-focused work and rights-related initiatives involving children.

KEYWORDS:

• Child perspective
• adult perspective
• implementation in daily work
• child’s rights perspective

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank all employees at the Health and care department for contributing to this study. A special thanks goes to the members of the project group: Emelie Creutz and Alexandra Thorén Todoulos and the members of the steering committee: Ulrika Wickman and Niklas Möller. This research was based on an evaluation study financed by the Health and care department, Swedish Red Cross.

Disclosure statement

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

Research affiliation

The research was conducted at the Swedish Red Cross University.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Stålberg

Anna Stålberg is a paediatric nurse, PhD, and a Senior lecturer at the Swedish Red Cross University College. Her main research area concerns children’s rights within healthcare and child participation in healthcare is an area of specific interest.

Henrik Eriksson

Henrik Eriksson is a Professor at University West, Trollhättan, Sweden. He has broad international experience as educator and researcher in Health and Nursing Sciences. His main research interests focus on consequences of globalisation through digitalisation and addresses how gender, technology, and aging intersect with health.