Caregiver perceptions of children in their care and motivations for the care work in children's homes in Ghana: Children of God or children of white men?

The perceptions and motivations that workers have in their work and work environment are important determinants of the quality of work they do. For people who work in residential institutions where children who have lost the care of their parents receive care, these perceptions and motivations become a crucial part in determining the quality of services or care the children are given. This study set out to explore the perceptions and motivations of caregivers in the institutional context in Ghana. Adopting a qualitative, phenomenological approach, data were collected from 35 caregivers in two children's homes in Ghana through participant observations, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. It emerged that caregivers perceived the children in their care first as children of God and then as children of white men and were predominantly motivated by their religious convictions to keep doing ‘the work of God’. Other motivations included personal life situations and economic aspects of the job. Implications for the workers and children in this environment are discussed

Obscuring Gender-Based Violence: Marriage Promotion and Teen Dating Violence Research

This article argues that United States public policies have prioritized marriage and healthy relationship promotion over research and education about gendered violence in adult and teen relationships, despite evidence of the prevalence of intimate partner and teen dating violence that disproportionately impacts women and girls. The lack of a gender-based analysis reflects a shift from a feminist framing of violence that focuses on the safety and well-being of women and girls based on an analysis of gender, power, and structural inequalities, to ward a conservative focus on individualistic solutions to gendered social problems like poverty and violence