Citation

Agere LM, Tanga PT. Child Abuse Res. South Afr. 2017; 18(2): 59-67.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, South African Professional Society on the Abuse of Children)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The gist of the paper is to assess the psycho-social challenges and experiences that child headed household's face and critically examines their resilience. A qualitative approach was utilised in the study and the case study was used as the research design. Data was gathered by means of semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The major findings drawn from the study are the effects of living with parental illness, sadness and anxiety due to dramatic changes in dynamics, pain and trauma witnessing a parent dying, debilitating effects of grief and loss and stigma and discrimination. The study reveals that children have several coping mechanisms that exude their resilience and this includes NGO support, the role of sibling support and community structures. The paper recommends among other things a properly resourced, co-ordinated and well managed child protection system in South Africa, constituency work that responds to the real needs of child headed households and SMART planning with systemic teaming around CHH with the DSD as lead agency.

Language: en