Date of Award

1-1-2023

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

School of Social Welfare

Content Description

1 online resource (v, 294 pages) : illustrations.

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Eunju Lee

Committee Members

Joanna Dreby, Sarah Mountz

Keywords

resilience, social constructionism, social policy, street-level bureaucrats, trauma, Post-traumatic stress disorder in adolescence, Psychic trauma, Resilience (Personality trait), Social workers

Subject Categories

Social Work

Abstract

Children can be affected by a variety of traumatic events as they grow up, but they still have the potential to show resilience. Along with the accumulation of research on trauma, resilience has also become an influential concept in the field of social welfare. Existing research has tentatively explored the socially constructed nature of trauma and resilience. From a social constructionist perspective, it is the narratives and interactions of people who have experienced traumatic events and other stakeholders that collectively shape the meaning of trauma and resilience. More importantly, these personal narratives, as well as larger social discourses, may have implications for social policies that address trauma and promote resilience. In particular, street-level bureaucrats, including social workers, play an important role in shaping social policies, based on their dual influence on the implementation and innovation of local-level policies. Based on two types of cases, children bereaved by an earthquake in Beichuan County and children bereaved by AIDS in Liangshan Prefecture, my dissertation attempts to explore the shaping of trauma and resilience in the Chinese context. Specifically, I first analyze the construction of trauma and resilience in the narratives of individuals who have experienced trauma, the narratives of street-level bureaucrats, and the larger political and social discourse. I also explore the impact of narratives and discourses about trauma and resilience on the implementation and innovation of social policy. Adopting a comparative ethnographic approach, I interviewed and surveyed 20 bereaved young adults and street-level bureaucrats in Beichuan County, and 18 bereaved young adults and street-level bureaucrats in Liangshan Prefecture. I also collected textual materials including government documents, news articles, archives, and more. The two types of cases in Beichuan and Liangshan demonstrate commonalities in shaping trauma and resilience. First, bereaved young adults in the two research sites defined trauma in multiple dimensions, describing the impact of bereavement events in terms of personal, family, and social relationships. Among them, the deterioration of academic performance, the decline of family economic status, and negative personality changes were the more prominent effects. In contrast, street-level bureaucrats in both sites were less aware of the long-term effects of trauma on children’s development, although they had more comprehensive observations on the personality changes caused by trauma. Regarding the macroscopic mass media and government discourse, the bereavement trauma of Beichuan children tended to be medicalized as “a long-term and serious shadow”, while the bereavement trauma of Liangshan children was materialized as a problem of poverty. Second, in both Beichuan and Liangshan, resilience has also been described by bereaved young adults as a concept formed in social ecology, encompassing risk factors and protective factors in personal, family, and social relationships. Based on their vocational training and expertise, street-level bureaucrats were inclined to incorporate a professional perspective into their descriptions of the resilience of bereaved children. However, they were not able to have a comprehensive understanding of the ecological systems that affected bereaved children. In terms of social and government discourse, both research sites tended to exert social control over bereaved children, by highlighting socially accepted signs of resilience, such as cheerfulness, sensibleness, and hard work. As for the social policies of the two research sites, although there were differences in policy content, coverage, and level of benefit, there were similarities in the mechanisms by which they were influenced by narratives and discourses. The spontaneously-formed narratives from bereaved people, street-level bureaucrats, government documents, and mass media determined the policy measures addressing the basic needs of bereaved children. The discourses of the mass media influenced high-level policy by selectively portraying the situation of bereaved children. Street-level bureaucrats played a central role in shaping lower-level policies. On the one hand, they were most aware of the needs of bereaved children so that they may adjust the way services were delivered. On the other hand, they could make up for the lack of high-level policy by mobilizing and using external resources. They would even develop small-scale policies limited to schools and communities to help bereaved children. Preliminary evidence also exists for the opposite effect of policy on trauma and resilience narratives. My research also highlights the differences between cases in Liangshan and Beichuan. Actually, the severity of trauma-related psychological problems, stigma, cultural influence, nature of resilience, and choice of coping styles differed significantly between bereaved children in the two research sites. Moreover, the social policies of the two places were also evidently different in terms of coordination level, content type, coverage of policy benefits, and placement methods for bereaved children. Based on the research findings, my policy and practical recommendations include de-medicalizing trauma, developing capability-oriented services, enhancing trauma-informed staff training, reducing social control, decentralizing the social policy system, etc.

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