In my master's thesis, I focus on the relationship between adults and children or adolescents. I
am particularly interested in the influence that adults have (their perception of children, their
expectations) on children's behavior. I explore this in the context of (summer)camps organized
by the Anita Ogulin Association for socially disadvantaged children – these are known as
humanitarian camps. In the theoretical part, I present concepts such as deviant behavior and
risk factors for it, highlighting the influence of poverty and the influence of negative
expectations or stigma that the child may experience. On the other hand, I also focus on
protective factors, which may include the educators themselves and their positive expectations.
I also highlight the role of rules and adult responses to unacceptable behavior. Finally, in the
theoretical part, I present the Anita Ogulin Association and its camps, which I will be
researching.
In the empirical part, I analyze the Protocol for the Protection of Children, which binds
educators in their work at camps. With the help of semi-structured interviews, I examine four
research questions that cover the work and attitudes of educators who participate in
humanitarian camps. I am interested in what expectations they have when they go there; how
they perceive a good educator; whether they notice any differences between conflict situations
in humanitarian and other camps and how they respond to them in concrete terms; whether they
perceive any commonalities among children who participate in humanitarian camps; and
finally, what their opinion is regarding the development of Guidelines for dealing with
unacceptable behavior. Throughout the interview, I follow the initial question of the task,
namely whether the educators' answers reveal any stigmatization of children who attend
humanitarian camps. This would mean justified concern about negative expectations that
educators would have of children and, as a result, a potential "provoked" increase in
unacceptable behavior at camps.
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