Psychic and social life of children in Chinese orphanages

My research aims to psychic and social life of children in Chinese orphanages. These children are often abandoned because of their disability. They are placed as a result of the failure of their parents following a death, pauperism, imprisonment, or the difficulties they face leading to the abandonment of the child. I wonder how these children in Chineseorphanages will organize themselves socially and psychologically to deal with the double trauma: abandonment and placement. To test the effects of emotional deprivation crossed with the abandonment and institutionalization, an exploratory research, which consists of field observation and interviews with three nurses is carried out in two Chinese orphanages. And then, the data collection was conducted with 16 children from 7 to 12 years with the methodological tools: the interview with children, drawing and testing stories. The analysis of data collected is based on three vectors that underlie the organization of the psychic life of an individual : self-representation, representation of his relationship with others, defense mechanisms implemented. The presentation of results is divided into two parts: comprehensive study of data (comprehensive study of the interviews, comprehensive study of the drawings, comprehensive study of the test stories) and case studies (7 cases among the samples are selected for in-depth studies). The results show that these children have deficiencies in self-representation which are detected by the self-esteem damaged and negative feelings, deficiencies in their relationship with others of the order of pathology of the link, and to deal with their situation, some children may enter into a process of resilience which is observed by the defense mechanisms they use or by reference to a guardian of resilience.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source https://theses.hal.science/tel-00685103
Author Ning, Ling Han
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 22, 2026, 18:37 (UTC)
Created May 22, 2026, 18:37 (UTC)
Identifier NNT: 2012PA05H001
Language fr
Rights https://about.hal.science/hal-authorisation-v1/
contributor Education Discours Apprentissages (EDA - EA 4071) ; Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5 (UPD5)
creator Ning, Ling Han
date 2012-02-06T00:00:00
harvest_object_id 8ead45e6-51be-4760-9f7c-44244e331d7c
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2026-03-30T00:00:00
set_spec type:THESE