‘I Think It’s So Complicated Knowing What to Make of What Children Show’: On Child Welfare Employees’ Assessments of Children’s Reactions to Visitation

Abstract

The theme of this article is how child welfare workers understand children’s reactions when they assess visitation between parents and children in public care in Norway. The data material consists of 35 transcribed, anonymised recordings of child welfare workers from different child welfare services across the country discussing visitation. The analytical approach is based on Sara Ahmed’s perspectives on discourses on emotions and how the circulation of emotions creates reactions. This has enabled an exploration of child welfare workers’ understanding of children’s reactions as hierarchical, produced by stigma and adaptations. This article shows the complexity present when child welfare workers consider visitation between parents and children in public care. It shows how children’s reactions to visitation can be interpreted and understood and how this affects the assessments that are made. The article provides an insight into how child welfare workers are influenced by societal discourses about what emotions are and what they do and how this is of significance when assessing visitation between children and parents.