Research Articles (Social Development- ISD)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/1351

Browse

Browsing by Subject "Care"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Exploring adaptation and agency of mothers caring for disabled children inan urban settlement in South Africa: A qualitative study
    (Elsevier, 2019) van der Mark, Elise J; Conradie, Ina; Dedding, Christine W.M.
    Mothers of disabled children who are living in poverty face multiple interlinked disadvantages in relation togender, care, disability, and poverty. Yet, their experiences have been largely neglected in academic literature.This study explores how mothers from a poor urban settlement in South Africa manoeuvre, adapt, act and reactin such a difficult context, and how they maintain or improve their own and their family's wellbeing. Ourqualitative research with 30 mothers shows women's adaptation and agency in the trade-offs they make. Fuelledby social discrimination and abuse, mothers prefer to focus solely on the child, its care and the household inorder to keep themselves and their child safe. Despite providing certain benefits that mothers value, thesepreferences perpetuate or indeed worsen their position in society, as they reinforce traditional gender structuresand render them invisible to policymakers. This poses serious challenges for women's empowerment and gender-sensitive poverty-reduction policies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    ‘We create our own small world’: daily realities of mothers of disabled children in a South African urban settlement
    (Routledge, 2019) van der Mark, Elise J.; Conradie, Ina; Dedding, Christine W. M.; Broerse, Jacqueline E. W.
    Parents of disabled children face many challenges. Understanding their experiences and acknowledging contextual influences is vital in developing intervention strategies that fit their daily realities. However, studies of parents from a resource-poor context are particularly scarce. This ethnographic study with 30 mothers from a South African township (15 semi-structured interviews and 24 participatory group sessions) unearths how mothers care on their own, in an isolated manner. The complexity of low living standards, being poorly supported by care structures and networks, believing in being the best carer, distrusting others due to a violent context, and resigning towards life shape and are shaped by this solitary care responsibility. For disability inclusive development to be successful, programmes should support mothers by sharing the care responsibility taking into account the isolated nature of mothers’ lives and the impact of poverty. This can provide room for these mothers to increase the well-being of themselves and their children.