Abstract
D.Ed.
The purpose of this inquiry was to explore perceptions and practices of family well-being in the context of child-headed families, and to propose a comprehensive framework that would be beneficial for supportive, educational interventions in the families. This inquiry was conducted among orphans living in two child-headed families. Family life of the orphans was the major focus of this study. All the resources from within a family, the activities, interactions and the way a family organizes and plans determines the well-being of individuals in the family. The specific characteristic of this inquiry is that it captures phenomena around human group way of life (families) and human conduct (lived experiences, interactions and behaviours). It is for this reason that the qualitative ethnographic design was employed and a Grounded Theory Approach of analysis was used to inductively derive a comprehensive framework for the facilitation of well-being in the child-headed families who participated in this study.
Data generation was done through in-depth interviews, small group discussions, visual and imagery observation, and theoretical sampling. Interviews were conducted with orphans 12 years and older and for orphans under the age of 12 years observations were employed for ethical compliance. The grounded theory analysis included initial coding, focused coding, axial coding, identifying main categories and memo writing to develop the framework.