A Constructive-Developmental Analysis of Satisfaction, Challenge and Coping in Residential Child and Youth Care

Abstract The work of caring for children and youth in residential care is a type of “mental demand,” in Kegan’s phrase, and in this study we used Kegan’s constructive developmental theory to interpret the mental demands on front-line child and youth care practitioners. The research questions were (a) how do different meaning-making systems influence how practitioners cope with and experience the demands of the job, and (b) what do child and youth care practitioners, with different meaning-making systems, identify as the primary challenges and the most satisfying experiences, and how do they experience and cope with these challenges? From the initial pool of 99, eighteen participants were selected for in-depth, qualitative interviews to assess the ways in which they make meaning and explore their experiences in residential care. There was internal coherence among the self-authoring and socialized epistemological orders and across organizations. This way of understanding the work reinterprets practice problems, including boundaries and limit testing, turnover and burnout, and how to do supervision.