NUMBER 33 • 29 MAY 2002 • BLAME vs. ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
INDEX OF QUOTES

	It is perhaps understandable that young people view problems as attributable either to their parents or, more commonly, to themselves. The literature describes the self-blame and guilt feelings that many children who must leave their home have (Kadushin, 1980). It is disturbing however that professionals—child care workers and social workers— also tend to view problems as attributable to individuals, especially at a time when so much attention has been paid in the professional literature to the importance of regarding problems as occurring within ecological systems, of which the family is perhaps the most important (Garbarino, 1982; Hobbs, 1982; Whittaker, 1981). The practice implications for child care workers are evident. Many of the young people served by child care workers probably overemphasize their personal role in their family’s problems. Those child care workers who tend to emphasize the child’s role in the problems, are unlikely to be effective in helping the child to arrive at a more balanced perspective. A family ecological system perspective, on the other hand, seems to provide a more constructive basis for helping. Such a view avoids placing excessive responsibility on the child or, as it sometimes happens, blame on the parent, leaving the worker in a more functional position to provide help. One objective of child care work should be to help young people arrive at a more realistic appreciation of the reasons for their placement in group care. This is a particularly important task early in the placement; when successfully accomplished, it creates the conditions under which realistic and constructive service planning can occur.
	— PETER GABOR and IAN GREENE Gabor, P. and Greene, I. (1991). Views from the inside: Young people's perceptions of residential treatment. Journal of Child and Youth Care Work, Vol.7 pp.9–10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Garbarino, J. (1982). Children and families in the social environment. New York: Aldine.
Hobbs, N. (1982). The troubled and troubling child. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kadushin, A. (1980). Child welfare services. New York: Macmillan.
Whittaker, J.K. (1981). Family involvement in residential treatment: A support system for parents. In A. Maluccio & PA. Sinanoglu (Eds.). The challenge of partnership: Working with parents of children in foster care. New York: Child Welfare League of America.

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