Child Welfare and Development
A Japanese Case Study

An in-depth understanding of the everyday experiences and perspectives of maltreated children and their substitute caregivers and teachers in Japan.

Sachiko Bamba (Author), Wendy L. Haight (Author)

9781107002845, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 August 2011

224 pages, 14 b/w illus. 1 table
23.6 x 16.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.45 kg

"...An exemplary ethnographical emic study, Bamba and Haight’s research sheds light on how we understand culture, well-being, and healing...."
--Dr. Kay Tanaka, California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, PsycCRITIQUES

Bamba and Haight provide an in-depth understanding of the everyday experiences and perspectives of maltreated children and their substitute caregivers and teachers in Japan. Their innovative research program combines strategies from developmental psychology, ethnography and action research. Although child advocates from around the world share certain goals and challenges, there is substantial cultural variation in how child maltreatment is understood, its origins, impact on children and families, as well as societal responses deemed appropriate. The authors step outside of the Western cultural context to illustrate creative ecologically and developmentally based strategies for supporting the psychosocial well-being of maltreated children in state care, provide an alternative but complementary model to the prevalent large-scale survey strategies for conducting international research in child welfare, and provide a resource for educators to enhance the international content of human development, education, social work and child welfare courses.

1. Childrearing at a residential child care institution: watching with long eyes
2. Japanese contexts and concepts: Jidou Yougo Shisetsu, Ibasho and Mimamori
3. The research program
4. A developmental goal for maltreated children: Ibasho creation
5. Challenges to maltreated children's Ibasho creation
6. Socialization practices underlying Ibasho creation: Mimamori
7. Children's lives and experiences of Ibasho and Mimamori
8. Mr Watanabe's responses to the intervention
9. Reflections on some challenges of field research
10. The emerging child welfare context of Jidou Yougo Shisetsu
11. Conclusion: some lessons for culturally-sensitive child welfare.

Subject Areas: Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Child welfare [JKSB1], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]