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12 AUGUST 2009
NO 1473
Difficult questions
"Where do babies come from?" "Why are there wars?" "How old is God?" are poignant questions which may be asked of workers by children. Knowing how to respond to these and other questions, regardless of the situation and age of the child, may at times be a difficult task. It is clearly not possible for workers to predict the scope and nature of child initiated questions. Therefore, rather than providing beginning child care workers with a comprehensive list of possible questions and accompanying responses, identification of certain types or clusters of perceived difficult questions may be useful.
Communication skills training is recognized as
a core component of any Child and Youth Care training program
(VanderVen, Mattingly and Morris, 1982). However texts used either focus
or generic counselling approaches (Adler and Towne, 1984; Coombs and
Avila, 1985; Egan, 1986) or intervention techniques based on one
particular framework (Cochrane and Myers, 1980). Rather than counselling
approaches to use in a variety of situations, attention needs also to be
given to the types of client initiated questions most often asked of
Child and Youth Care professionals. Whereas at times it may be important
for the children to work through their own concerns, it is equally
important for workers to be aware and respond directly to problematic
and possibly embarrassing questions.
In order to examine this area, questions considered "difficult" were
generated by students and practitioners working with children and youth.
Careful examination of questions received, indicated the following six
clusters, termed "domains."
Question Domains (Q.D.).
For each of the following six areas, operational definitions are
presented, including several question examples used in the
Identification of Difficult Questions (I.D.Q) questionnaire. Although
questions may appear to contain elements of other domains, in this
survey they were represented by one key domain.
Emotional domain: Questions within the emotional domain contain personal feelings and issues of concern. These types of questions may be accompanied by states such as depression, guilt, fear or anxiety. The following are examples: "Why don't teachers talk to kids the way they talk to adults"? "Why is my dad an alcoholic"? "Why doesn't my family love me?"
Spiritual domain: Questions of a spiritual nature in this questionnaire are inquiries about God, religion and/or faith. The concept of spirituality proposed here is of a religious nature; that is, spirituality is a belief in a supreme being or deity who is concerned about the welfare of the individual. Question examples include: "What happens to me when I die?" "Is God dead?" "How do you prove the existence of God?"
Moral domain: Moral questions are those that involve a value, ethical and/or philosophical orientation. An example from this domain is "Why does cancer take the best people in life away from those who need them the most?" This domain also includes questions about how a person functions and individual standards which govern behavior (e.g., "What is safe sex?")
Social domain: Inherent in questions of a social nature are issues about relationships, society and the child's position within society. These concerns may often be related to relationships and interactional issues with peers and family. Representative questions within this domain on I.D.Q. questionnaire are "When will I find a real friend?" "Why do my friends always tell me what to do?" "What can I do to make others love me?"
Physical domain: Questions within the physical domain may be one of two types: the physical self and interactions with physical and inanimate objects within the child's world. Questions focusing on personal physique may be in reference to appearance and body image ("When will I look pretty?" "Why do I have diabetes?" or the child's physical and personal world ("Why can't I draw well when I try as hard as I can?")
Intellectual domain: Questions in this domain require knowledge-based answers, reflecting a wide range of subject areas. Whereas some child initiated questions may be in relation to the physical world ("How can it be night time here and day time in another country?") others refer to the immediate world of the child or adolescent ("How does time work?" "How do I make good money at such a young age besides a paper route?")
The purpose of this study was to explore each question domain identified in order to assist beginning practitioners in becoming aware of the range of possible child and youth initiated questions and of the possible difficulties some students may have in responding appropriately.
DALE A. RUTTAN AND CAREY J. DENHOLM
Ruttan, D.A. and Denholm, C.J. (1989). Identification of difficult question domains for Child and Youth Care students. Journal of Child and Youth Care, 4, 2. pp. 35-37.
REFERENCES
Adler, R.B., and Towne, N. (1984). Looking out/Looking in (4th ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Cochrane, C.T., and Myers, D.V. (1980). Children in crisis. California: Sage.
Coombs, A.W., and Avila, D.L. (1985). Helping relationships (3rd ed.). Newton, Massachusetts. Allyn & Bacon.
Egan, G. (1986). The skilled helper: A model for systematic helping and interpersonal relating (3rd ed.). Monterey, California: Brooks/Cole.
Vanderven, K., Mattingly, M., and Morris, G. (1982). Principle and guidelines for child care personnel preparation programs. Child Care Quarterly, 11. pp. 242-249.
