Infancy and Caring

Kari Vik (kv), Vickfarajaeli Zebedayo Daudi (vzd), Lusajo Joel Kajula (ljk), Rolf Rohde (rr), Omary Said Ubuguyu (osu) and Joseph Ndukusi Saibulu (jns)

Psychology and Developing Societies, 2018, vol. 30, issue 1, 105-125

Abstract: Caregivers at an institution for motherless infants in rural Tanzania participated in focus group interviews and participant observations. This paper aims at describing how they perceive infancy, caring and sensitivity in their everyday context. It adds knowledge from Tanzania about institutional infant care and the concept of sensitivity in caregiving, based on an approach sensitive to culture and context. The main result is that the caregivers are most concerned with fulfilling the infants’ physical needs. They defined infants’ social and emotional needs in a variety of ways and gave accounts about what sensitivity in caring for infants meant in their context. They also described their workload, their burdens and their strengths, and demonstrated shortcomings in fulfilling the infants’ social and emotional needs. Interventions to promote emotional and social support in addition to fulfilling physical needs are crucial.

Keywords: Infancy; institution; motherless; caregiver; sensitivity; culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:psydev:v:30:y:2018:i:1:p:105-125

DOI: 10.1177/0971333617749141

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