Supporting child caregivers in South Indian orphanages: Identifying ‘Ghosts’ and creating ‘Angels’

What do child caregivers bring from their own childhood experiences to their work with the children they care for? Such influences on caregiving behaviour have been studied in relation to parents and children, especially mothers. Multiple psychological theories-psychoanalytic theory, attachment theory and various theories of infant research-all indicate the powerful influence of one's own parental experiences on parenting behaviour. The adverse effects of these hidden factors, referred to as ‘ghosts in the nursery’ by Fraiberg et al. (2005) in their classic 1975 article, also affect the child caregivers’ behaviour towards children in orphanages and other alternative care institutions. To provide a contrast to ‘ghosts’, Lieberman et al. refer to the effects of positive experiences in childhood as ‘angels in the nursery’. This article provides survey information on the prevalence of 10 adverse childhood experiences of child caregivers, using survey results for teachers as a control group. This comparison indicates that caregivers in South India have more ‘ghosts’ from their own childhood that are likely to adversely affect their caregiving. This situation suggests the need to develop compensatory actions to help the child caregivers-some of which are identified in this article-so that the children in their care will experience ‘angels’ during their childhood that will promote their emotional growth and their own future parenting.