INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

When children did draw negative emotions, I asked them what sorts of things
usually make them unhappy. I already understood quite well that many of the children
had experienced past traumas, but I was also unsure if they would be able to connect
those to more consistent emotional states. I asked Thembani, a seven year-old boy who
drew a frightened face, what it was that made him scared he smiled and replied “getting
beaten!” Upon following up with more questions, it seemed that he mostly meant to refer
to corporal punishment rather than intense physical abuse. More than anything, this
simply reflected the cultural norms surrounding child discipline, and the broad crosscultural
phenomenon of children being afraid of punishment. Other boys seemed to echo
this common fear, but with a sense of humor, and when I offered to tell them a bedtime
story if they drew along, they requested a story about a boy who gets spanked with a belt
by his mother after failing to buy all the proper things at the market. The center itself did
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