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WHDL - 00010015

An exploration of relationships and potential for the growth of love : a grounded theory study in Orphanage Q /

Aisling L. Zweigle

Resource Types

Academic (Thesis, Dissertation, Etc.)

Resource Languages

English

Institutional Repository

Description / Abstract

This study examined Orphanage Q as a non-Western setting, serving children-at-risk where attachment is a stated goal. The researcher’s central research question was: what is the nature of relationships between children and caregivers in a residential care setting? The research began there but its focus expanded outward to the multiple dynamics present in the many additional relationships at Orphanage Q. The research questions were broad by design and conveyed the researcher’s explicit desire to scaffold current attachment theory for the Filipino cultural context, allowing a grounded Filipino theory to emerge. An open stance facilitated the emergence of culturally grounded theory, as the researcher attended to multiple dynamics. This study is significant as it connects with the ongoing debate regarding orphan care and concern. The lives of orphans and vulnerable children being served in residential care are complex. Attachment theory, as well as child trauma specialists and child development writers provided a framework for this research. This research speaks into the gap of attachment research addressing cultural contexts in which OVC live (and die). This study highlighted many attachment-sensitive practices that guide caregivers today and it questioned what attachment-informed care might look like in a Filipino context. This researcher used grounded theory method (GTM) and immersed herself in one such community in Metro-Manila Philippines, at Orphanage Q, which serves OVC awaiting adoptive “forever” families. This researcher took considerable time to explore the grounded theory method (GTM) and its unique model for robust qualitative research. This included examining the selection of the research site, the non-random purposeful sampling selection, data gathering and analysis strategies. The researcher was committed to both reflexivity and transparency throughout this study. The research ethics express an overt commitment to respecting participants, being mindful of power and vulnerability. These considerations were revisited in this study’s emerging design. A general census sampling of all 120 children and youth in Orphanage Q and the 60-plus staff people were observed, allowing for prolonged engagement and persistent observation. Smaller theoretical samplings of children and orphanage staff were chosen in response to the data collected. The data included months of observation and semi-structured interviews and art experiences as three main research methods. A constant comparative approach to simultaneous data collection and analysis was in keeping with the GTM approach. Analysis included three phases of coding: open, axial, and selective. Researcher reflexivity documented in an audit trail of memos, as well as a peer debriefer, member checks, and triangulation of data further increased the validity, transferability, and the confirmability of the grounded theory that emerged. The orbital network of attachment (ONA) theory emerged as a core category and conveys a complex set of relationships as observed and described in participants’ narratives. ONA and its multi-dimensions is understood under three over-arching umbrellas of meaning: atmosphere, orbits, and wavelengths. ONA as an attachment model includes the development of an interconnected series of circles, or circle of circles—COC’s—as dynamic attachment relationships. These dynamics include findings identified as the matriarch, apprenticeship, and the Filipino concept of tagasalo. The resulting substantive theory has emerged, grounded in the data and the Filipino context, to serve as scaffolding for a more robust culture-specific addition to the attachment theory database. Key issues include attachment theory, trauma-informed intervention, orphans, and vulnerable children (OVC.)

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Publish Year: 2017

Subject Index

Copyright Notes

KeywordsAttachment behavior in children, Attachment behavior in adolescence, Children in Institutional care, Grounded theory (Philippines), Attachment theory, Orphans in the Philippines

Degree AwardedMaster of Arts in Religious Education (Holistic Child Development)

Awarding InstitutionAsia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary

Committee MembersBruce Oldham, Floyd Cunningham, Nativity Petallar, Sunia Fukofuka, Clark Armstrong, Irene Yang

Supervisor or ChairBrenita Nicholas

Peer Reviewed?No

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Masters of Arts in Religious Education

21 Resources

Religion - Christianity
Education
Social and Behavioral Sciences

English

This collection contains the theses in fulfillment of the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Education at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary.