Table Of ContentSOME CASEWORK ASPECTS OP THE USE OP A CLOTHING
PROGRAM IN A CHILD PLACEMENT AGENCY
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the School of Social Work
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Social Work
*>y
Elsie Muslin
June 1950
UMI Number: EP66352
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,
a note will indicate the deletion.
Dissertation P^ousting
UMI EP66352
Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
All rights reserved. This work is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code
ProQuest LLC.
789 East Eisenhower Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346
This thesis, written under the direction of the
candidate’s Faculty Committee and approved
by all its members, has been presented to and
accepted by the Faculty of the Graduate School
of Social W ork in partial fulfilment of the re
quirements for the degree of
MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK
Dean
Thesis ALICE..MUSLIN..
Faculty Committee
Chairman
PjnA
TABLE OP CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION.................... . 1
Statement of the problem ........... 1
The agency setting . . . . . . . ........ • 2
Cultural aspects of clothing . . . ........ • 4
Agency provisions for clothing programs • • • 15
The clothing policy of the Children!s Bureau
of Los Angeles.............................. 18
Casework aspects of a clothing program , , . . 20
II. SUMMARY OP BACKGROUND MATERIAL IN THE CASE
RECORDS............ ......................... 26
The Norman c a s e .............................. 26
Parent's record . • • • • • . • • . . . • • 26
Child's record....................... . . . 28
Foster parent's record ..................... 28
The Tager case . . ........................... 29
Parent's r e c o r d ........................... 29
Child's record............................. 31
Poster parents * record • .............. • 31
The Jones ease......... . .................... 32
Parent's record . . . . . . . . ............. 32
Child's record .............................. 33
Foster parent's record .............. 34
iii
CHAPTER PAGE
The Magnin c a s e .......................... 35
Parents1 r e c o r d ........................ 35
Child!s record .............................. 36
Poster parents r record................. 37
III. ANALYSIS OP C A S E S ........... 39
The clothing program as it focuses the need
for the parent to share the responsibility
for clothing............................ 40
The emotional relationship between parent and
child as it is expressed through clothing • 55
Variations in what natural parents and foster
parents consider appropriate clothing for
children................................. .. 63
Competition between natural parent and foster
parent as expressed through clothing • • . . 71
IV. CONCLUSIONS................... 75
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................... 80
APPENDIX............................................... 83
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Tp a greater or lesser degree attention has been given
in the literature of social casework to the use of the
concrete service as a means of helping the parent to experi
ence the reality situation of child placement* Yet, the very
significant role of clothing in the child placement setting
has been given little recognition* The board payment and the
visiting plan are mentioned frequently as the focal points
around which parents may become involved in the placement
situation* Forms such as the financial agreement and medical
consent are discussed from the standpoint of their intellec
tual and emotional values in making real for the parent the
implications of placement* The importance of reception care
as a period in which the parent may test and experience
separation from the child has also been pointed out in the
literature* For material on the various aspects of clothing
we must look to the allied fields of Anthropology, Sociology,'
Psychology, and Education* Their contributions, although
related to the social casework field, are approached from
their own frame of reference.
The staff members of the Children's Bureau, the setting
for this study, were asked for records which would contain
material on any or all of the following areas:
2
1* The clothing program as it focuses the need for
the parent to share the responsibility for clothing*
2. The emotional relationship between parent and child
as it is expressed through clothing.
3. Variations in what natural parent and foster parent
consider appropriate clothing for children.
Fifteen cases were submitted for review. Of the total
number four placement cases were chosen which included the
most ample recording relating to clothing and came within the
period of the present policy. As records for foster parents,
natural parents and children are separate, this study is based
on a total of twelve records. An important limiting factor
in the number of cases used for the study was the experimental
stage of the program at the time material was selected. The
program was used by some caseworkers as early as November,
1948, but uniform usage at the time of the parentrs application
for placement was not practiced until March, 1949, and collec
tion of material for this study began in December, 1949.
The Children fs Bureau is a non-sectarian agency which
offers the service of child placing to parents residing in
the area covered by the Community Chest, the source of its
funds. Because of the existence of two sectarian placement
agencies in the city, namely, Jewish and Catholic, most
clients accepted for service are members of the Protestant
religion. Eligibility requirements specify that the parent
3
pay for board, clothing, and medical care in accordance with
financial ability. The agency assumes the remainder of the
cost if the parent cannot meet the total payment. The
agency’s service has undergone numerous changes because of
its continued efforts to give better professional help and
to fulfill immediate community needs.
The Children’s Bureau is now composed of four depart
ments z Home Finding, Intake, Reception Care, and Foster Care.
The most recent addition is the Reception Care Department.
This department works very closely with Intake, as during the
initial two to six months of placement the parent and child
are seen by separate workers. The intake worker continues to
work with the parent during this period and the child is
assigned to a worker in Reception Care who assumes casework
responsibility for the child and the foster parent with whom
the child is residing temporarily. When parent and child are
ready for more permanent placement plans, both are transferred
to the Foster Care Department. It is the responsibility of
Home Finding to study and certificate foster homes for tempor
ary and long time care. In some instances foster homes are
used which have been licensed by the Los Angeles Public
Welfare Commission and in which foster parents are willing
to work exclusively with the Children’s Bureau.
4
I. CULTURAL ASPECTS OF CLOTHING
As background reading for the study the literature
pertaining to the significance of clothing in our culture was
reviewed. To survey the total field of information is, in
itself, a monumental undertaking beyond the scope of this
study. It is, however, important to point up briefly some
established patterns of the American people which motivate
the desire for and acquisition of clothing as a result of
their particular setting.
In their efforts to determine the original motive for
the wearing of clothes, students in the fields of Anthropology
and Psychology have searched for the answer in pre-human
behavior, Archaeology, the study of primitive peoples and
behavior in modern civilization. Disagreement is evidenced
by the attempts of individuals and groups to emphasize one
motive or another as the first reason for the use of clothing,
but there is general concurrence in the fact that the three
main purposes served by clothing are protection, modesty, and
decoration. The most obvious use of clothing for protection
is against heat and cold. Mentioned less frequently, but
nonetheless significant, are the incentives to guard against
other humans in warfare and sports, against animals and
insects and to prevent accidents, both in sports and hazardous
occupations. The covering of the body for purposes of modesty
is, according to J. C. Flugel:
• • • fan inhibitory impulse1 which (1) may be directed
against social, or primarily against sexual forms of
display (2) may be directed primarily against the tendency
to display the naked body or primarily against the
tendency to display gorgeous or beautiful clothes (3) may
have reference primarily to tendencies in the self, or
primarily to tendencies in others (4) may aim primarily
at the prevention of desire or satisfaction (social and
sexual) or, primarily at the prevention of disgust, shame
or disapproval and (5) may relate to various parts of the
body.1
Included as important decorative aspects of clothing
are the sexual element of dressing for the attraction of the
opposite sex and the arousal of envy in the same sex, the
fortification of self esteem, class distinction and the dis
play of economic wealth.
To understand the motives for dress is important in
the study of any given culture. It is, however, out of the
study of fashion that we begin to see more specifically the
motivation in dress of Americans. A number of psychologists,
among whom are George Van Ness Dearborn, Elizabeth Hurlock,
and Estelle de Young, have singled out for study an investi
gation of the rise and fall of fashion, its source, and the
motives which perpetuate it. From the perusal of their works
and from first hand information available through newspapers,
magazines, and other sources, the aspects common to most
people in our culture in mode of dress become more clear.
1 J. C. Flugel, Psychology of Clothes (Londons Hogarth
Press, 1930), p. 54.
