The Impacts Of Child Care On Social And Emotional Development Of Children: Institutional And Home Based Care In Adama Town In Focus

Abstract

This study is concerned with the impacts of child care on social and emotional development aspects of children in the institutional care facilities and home based setting in Adama town, Oromia regional state. Its aims were to investigate how upbringing children in institutional and family setting has impacts the social relations and emotional stability of children. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the psychodynamic theory, attachment theory, behaveralist approaches. The study was carried out in Adama town, in institutional child care and schools as the main inquiry site. All institutional child care centers are private owned organizations and are mostly supported by foreign donors. Besides, the schools are supervised and owned by government and private legal entity. Methodologically, this study applies mixed method approaches and includes the triangulation of a variety of quantitative and qualitative instruments of data collection. The data has been collected from institutional child care facilities which consist of eighty participants and with equal eighty participants from home based which accounts for 160 children from the ages ranges of 10-19. Furthermore, interview was conducted with children from the ages of thirteen. The thesis concludes that the social structures and care for children available at the institutional care and home based care have strong impacts on the children’s lives and aspects of social and emotional development of life. The Institutional care facilities represents sets of structures that both enable and restrict the children to act as competent social actors. Even though the material and social structures and supplies at the homes determine much of the children’s lives, the children have some degree of freedom to act within these structures and are able to influence their own lives. Therefore, this study reveals that there are significant differences in terms of social and emotional development for institutional and home based care approaches. And, the qualitative finding also discloses that the home based care has positive impacts for children’s social and emotional development.