Peer-reviewed article
A qualitative insight into children’s and care-givers’ experience following re-integration from Uganda’s residential care facilities into family-based care
Eddy Walakira, Aloysious Nnyombi, James Thomas Ssenfuuma, Agnes Kyamulabi, Francis Kato et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This qualitative study followed 23 children and their caregivers 12 months after the children were reintegrated from residential care facilities into family-based care in central Uganda. The research found that most reunifications led to positive outcomes, including stronger child-caregiver relationships, improved parenting practices with less harsh discipline, and better social integration. However, some children and families experienced challenges, highlighting the need for economic support and guaranteed access to education to make reintegration successful.
Key points
- Children showed trusting and loving relationships with caregivers after reintegration, with positive interactions and bonding
- Caregivers demonstrated improved parenting characterised by warmth, responsiveness to children's needs, and reduced use of harsh discipline
- Children actively participated in social activities and developed positive relationships with family and community members
- Economic hardship and lack of access to education were barriers to successful reintegration for some families
- Children's voices and experiences should be prioritised in planning and implementing reunification programmes
Limitations
This qualitative study captures experiences but cannot determine causal relationships or provide prevalence data on how common positive versus negative outcomes are. The study does not compare reintegrated children to those who remained in residential care or to a control group, limiting conclusions about whether reintegration itself caused the observed outcomes.
Abstract
This article aims to elevate children’s and caretakers’ voices in shaping reunification and reintegration planning and implementation. It takes into consideration, the priority for children to experience fulfilling and happy childhoods following reunification from residential care facilities (RCFs) to homebased care (HBC). The article is based on 23 children who were followed up, 12 months post reunification from RCFs into HBC in six districts within central Uganda, a region with the highest concentration of RCFs. We conducted 11 in-depth interviews with older children aged 8–13 years and 23 in-depth interviews from the caregivers, who also provided information on 12 children who on account of age (less than 8 years) could not be interviewed. The qualitative study was nested under a longitudinal study (Randomised Controlled Trial NCT03498469). This study has revealed positive experiences following re-unification of children with homebased caregivers such as; continuous and positive child-caregiver interactions which translated into trusting and loving relationships and bonding between children and caregivers; improved parenting practices characterised by warmth and responsiveness to children’s physical, emotional and material needs and less reliance on harsh disciplinary practices; and social reintegration exemplified by children forging positive relationships with family and community members and their active participation in ongoing social activities. Yet the voices that perceived reunification negatively point to the overarching need to prioritise household welfare through economic strengthening efforts and other forms of provisioning and more crucially, ensuring children’s continued access to quality education as key ingredients in planning and implementing successful child reintegration efforts, including assuring children of happy and fulfilling childhoods.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Reunification and reintegration of children from residential care facilities to family-based, home-based care
- Population
- 23 children aged under 13 years (11 children aged 8–13 years directly interviewed, 12 younger children aged less than 8 years whose information came from caregivers) and their 23 caregivers in six districts of central Uganda
Key finding
Most children demonstrated trusting, loving relationships with caregivers characterised by continuous positive interactions and bonding
Walakira et al. · Prof. Eddy J. Walakira (OpenAlex works) · 2 May 2022