Childcare Worker Assumptions About Caring: Their Value and Use in Residential Care, Programdevelopment, Worker Training, and Retention

Assumptions influence behavior. What are theimplications for the care of children andyouth-of the assumptions that child care workersbring to their profession? Assumptions in four areasof care are studied: routine and the value ofconsistency, safety, and predictability, nurture asrelationships and attachments are formed, socialskill development as a function of socialization, anddiscipline as a tool of development. An emergentcategory of care is that of co-worker support. Follow-up, unanticipated initially, became the mostsignificant outcome of this study. Follow-up is bothan assumption about care--how to provide it and anact of care in that child care workers do so. It isnecessary to account for child care workerassumptions about care as these assumptions areenacted by the worker as he or she interprets theprogram they are trained to follow. The significanceof follow-up is heightened because it oftens happensinformally and interpersonnally with lastingimplications for the service provided.