Ways of Caring: How Relative Caregivers Support Children and Parents

Authors

Juliet Bromer, University of ChicagoFollow

Abstract

Reports on a subset of findings from a study that explored the support roles of African American child care providers in poor Chicago neighborhoods. Based on ten in-depth interviews with relative caregivers, Bromer discusses five themes: caregiver's adult-focused and child-focused motivations for caring, daily work with children, childrearing advice to parents, and caregiver-parent conflict. Caregivers’ motivations to provide child care and the meanings they ascribe to this daily work suggest new ways of defining a child-focused approach to caregiving.

Author Biography

Juliet Bromer is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Her dissertation examines the social support and community-building roles of child care providers in low-income communities. She received a BA from Columbia University and an MS from the Bank Street College of Education. She previously worked at Wheelock College, where she assisted in the development of a national accreditation system for family child care providers. She has also taught young children and trained teachers and providers in a variety of urban settings.

Recommended Citation

Bromer, J. (2005). Ways of Caring: How Relative Caregivers Support Children and Parents. Occasional Paper Series, (15). DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1188