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Providing a secure base: Parenting children in long-term foster family care

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Abstract

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of children growing up in long-term foster family care. It focuses attention on the challenges for foster carers in providing a secure base for foster children in middle childhood and early adolescence, who have come predominantly from backgrounds of abuse, neglect, and psychosocial adversity. Separation and loss in the children's lives, often through multiple placements, increase the likelihood of difficulties across a range of development. These children tend to be wary, distrustful, and controlling when they enter foster placements, but need from their carers many of the caregiving qualities most commonly described as providing a secure base in infancy. This study describes a model of parenting which uses four caregiving dimensions that are consistent with attachment theory and research: promoting trust in availability, promoting reflective function, promoting self-esteem, and promoting autonomy. A fifth dimension, promoting family membership, is added, as it reflects the need for children in long-term foster family care to experience the security that comes from a sense of identity and belonging. Qualitative data from the study demonstrates the usefulness of this model as a framework for analysis, but also suggests the potential use of such a framework for working with and supporting foster carers.

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... Specifically, the findings of the study are used to extend the theoretical framework of the Secure Base Model (Schofield & Beek, 2005) originally developed for foster parents to help conceptualize teacher-student relationships. Drawing on the model and attachment theory more broadly, it is argued that school exclusion can be seen as schools' failure to meet the attachment needs of these young people. ...
... A basic proposition of attachment theory is that proximity to a caregiver or an attachment figure, who is available, supportive and responsive, provides the infant with a feeling of having a secure base. The confidence of the infant in this secure base determines the extent to which they feel free to explore, play and learn (Schofield & Beek, 2005). ...
... Beyond teachers' attitudes and behaviours, a critical determinant of children's relationship with teachers is their attachment history. Unfortunately, children in care are often characterized by insecure attachments owing to early experiences of maltreatment and relational adversity (Schofield & Beek, 2005) and are therefore more likely to be wary of or challenge new relationships and to show behaviours such as clinginess, hostility or disobedience that make it difficult for teachers to attach to them (Bergin & Bergin, 2009). However, if teachers are able to behave in ways that disconfirm the insecure child's 'internal working model' (Bowlby, 1969) and expectation that the teacher will be hostile, rejecting or unresponsive, then a secure relationship can develop that can buffer against the negative consequences associated with insecure parent-child attachments (Spilt et al., 2012). ...
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Children in care from backgrounds of maltreatment often struggle to perform to their full potential in school. Although the English government has put education at the top of its agenda for children in care, there remains a high risk of children in care being excluded from school, undermining their chances of closing the attainment gap. This study examined how young persons in care and their foster carers perceive and experience out‐of‐school suspension and the factors surrounding it. While analysing interviewees’ accounts attachment theory emerged as a useful analytic lens through which to explore the school experiences of young persons. The study draws on 18 interviews with young persons in care aged 14–18 (nine interviews) who had been suspended from secondary school in the previous 2 years and their foster carers (nine interviews). Findings showed that despite the great importance of school for these young persons, it was generally experienced as a hostile environment where they felt they were not listened to, cared for or respected. These feelings marked a breakdown of communication between children and school and were a central factor in the process that led to their exclusion. Drawing on attachment theory, these dynamics are discussed as reflecting the failure of educational staff to respond to young persons’ attachment needs and provide them with a secure base. Specifically, the Secure Base model for foster carers’ caregivingis offered as a useful perspective to frame teachers’ relationships with young persons in care.
... Safe and stable caregiver-child relationships are vital for supporting child adjustment in home-based care, but there are particular challenges to forming secure caregiver-child relationships in this context. Children in home-based care can adapt to traumatic experiences such as frightening or unpredictable behavior by prior caregivers by becoming self-reliant, wary, and mistrusting (Schofield & Beek, 2005). Such resistant behaviors (e.g., difficulty being soothed) can elicit non-nurturing behaviors from even the most sensitive caregiver, and have been found to impede the development of secure attachment relationships for infants in foster care (Stovall & Dozier, 1998). ...
... Such resistant behaviors (e.g., difficulty being soothed) can elicit non-nurturing behaviors from even the most sensitive caregiver, and have been found to impede the development of secure attachment relationships for infants in foster care (Stovall & Dozier, 1998). These challenges in caregiver-child relationships in home-based care are amplified for older children who have a greater likelihood of experiencing disrupted placements, prolonged maltreatment, and a stronger loyalty to their birth family (Schofield & Beek, 2005). Thus, it has been argued that keeping children with family or known adults in kinship care may help buffer the challenges of forming a new attachment relationship with an unfamiliar adult in foster care. ...
... While qualitative research on the caregiver-child relationship in home-based care has contributed valuable information to the literature, this has predominately focused on foster-as opposed to kinship-caregiver perspectives. In a qualitative study from the United Kingdom, Schofield and Beek (2005) utilized attachment theory to interpret the ways foster caregivers offered security to the children they cared for. This included caregivers' expressing future concern and hope for the child, reflecting on the prior trauma and emotions underlying challenging child behavior, embracing the child's strengths and challenges, and promoting the child's family membership. ...
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Background: In out-of-home care in Australia and internationally, there is an increasing preference to place children in kinship than foster care placements as it is assumed that kinship care promotes caregiver, family, and cultural connectedness. However, little research has examined whether and how the quality of these connections differ between kinship and foster care. Objective: We utilized qualitative methodology to provide a richer, strengths-based exploration of caregivers' perspectives on the caregiver-child relationship and other connections (i.e., family, culture) in kinship compared to foster care. Participants and setting: Sixty-six kinship (N = 31) and foster (N = 35) caregivers of 8- to 16-year-olds in Australia. Methods: Kinship and foster caregivers provided Five-Minute Speech Samples about their child and the caregiver-child relationship. Thematic analysis was used to explore the ways caregivers described family relationships and connectedness. Results: Results highlighted the value caregivers place on strong attachment relationships with their children and the skills that help them develop a safe haven for children. Caregiver groups also differed in their discussions of commitment to the child and family and cultural connectedness, with kinship caregivers more likely to emphasize the strengths and challenges of birth family relations and the importance of cultural connectedness than foster caregivers. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the ways in which kinship and foster caregivers emphasize different aspects of family and cultural connectedness which can be used to inform policy and practice in an area currently lacking evidence.
... En este sentido, cuando las familias acogedoras ejercen la crianza de estos niños y niñas, estos últimos tienden a poner en marcha los modelos de interacción que conocen y que les han funcionado hasta entonces con su familia de origen. Por ello, entre las dificultades de esta re-educación, a menudo ocurre que el despliegue de conductas que transmiten atención, cariño, calidez y protección se enfrenta a patrones de conducta de los niños que muestran rechazo, indiferencia o desconfianza (Dozier, 2005;Rushton et al., 2003;Schofield & Beek, 2005aSinclair et al., 2005). Igualmente, en muchos casos, la presencia de dificultades en su desarrollo emocional y conductual puede hacer que no sepan expresarse adecuadamente o identificar las expresiones y conductas de los otros (Lapastora y Mata, 2018;Sinclair & Wilson, 2003;Sinclair et al., 2005). ...
... Especialmente, algunos autores apuntan a que la acogida de niños y niñas de mayor edad se vuelve más compleja, ya que, por un lado, es probable que las representaciones negativas de estos niños y niñas estén más asentadas (Hillman et al., 2022). Por otro, los niños y niñas de mayor edad no suelen elicitar el cuidado de sus acogedores y acogedoras tan fácilmente (Dozier & Bernard, 2019;Schofield & Beek, 2005a). Además, especialmente a partir de la infancia media, los acogedores y acogedoras deben encontrar el equilibrio entre responder a necesidades emocionales procedentes de su adversidad pasada y, a la vez, fomentar el desarrollo acorde a su edad. ...
... In these new relationship models, foster caregivers must be in charge of transmitting to children important aspects, such as that they accept them as they are, that they recognize their needs, that they can be trusted, that they love them unconditionally and as part of their family, and that they will offer them protection and safety under their care (Delgado & López, 2016). This is why the interactions that occur between foster children and their caregivers acquire a central role in the dynamics of these families, as it is through these interactions that the affective bond between them will develop (Dozier & Rutter, 2016;Schofield & Beek, 2005a & Rutter, 2016). In other words, foster children, especially when foster care occurs after early childhood, have already learned and internalized patterns of interaction that, although they may not be useful anymore outside their previous family context, shape their understanding of and relationships with other people (Dozier, 2005;Rushton et al., 2003;Schofield & Beek, 2005aSinclair et al., 2005). ...
... Children growing up in unsafe situations are often in a high state of alertness and monitor their environment carefully (Schofield & Beek, 2005). In neurocognitive research, an association between childhood maltreatment and hyperactive amygdala responsivity was found (Dannlowski et al., 2012). ...
... Not surprisingly, foster children regularly develop a suspicious and controlling attitude, since they learned to trust only themselves (Crittenden, 1995;Schofield & Beek, 2005). These children are very difficult to comfort and seek little proximity, making it difficult to form a relationship with them (Schofield & Beek, 2005). ...
... Not surprisingly, foster children regularly develop a suspicious and controlling attitude, since they learned to trust only themselves (Crittenden, 1995;Schofield & Beek, 2005). These children are very difficult to comfort and seek little proximity, making it difficult to form a relationship with them (Schofield & Beek, 2005). They often push the foster carers away when they are upset, instead of seeking comfort with them (Stovall & Dozier, 1998). ...
... As the first step, we designed a statement matrix regarding these family relationships and tested it with young university students, some of whom were the only child in the family. The first domain of the matrix we aimed to measure was parental abuse, as noted previously (Elliott et al., 2005;Schofield & Beek, 2005). Example items of this domain are: "I was treated as the 'black sheep' or 'scapegoat' of the family by my father/mother" (derived from the EMBU), "My father/mother sometimes physically abuses me," and "My father/mother is always angry with me since he/she has nowhere to release his/her emotions." ...
... Factor 2, Parental Abuse, covered perceived physical and spiritual maltreatment and criticism from parents, which is called Rejection in the EMBU (Perris et al., 1980), and also as described by other scholars (Backer-Fulghum et al., 2012;Campos et al., 2013;Elliott et al., 2005;Schofield & Beek, 2005). Men scored higher on this scale than women did, which demonstrated a discriminant trait for it, and was in accordance with other studies as well (Lin & Billingham, 2014;Rikhye et al., 2008). ...
... Factor 5, Dominance, which was also unique to this study, clearly related to parental authority in family affairs. Although the scale has support in the literature (Elliott et al., 2005;Galanti, 2003;Schofield & Beek, 2005), it had no significant relationship with PBI scales, nor was it intercorrelated with other FRQ scales. Moreover, different groups scored similarly on the scale, implying that it was not a discriminant scale either in these situations. ...
Article
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Consistent results have shown a relationship between the psychological world of children and their perceived parental bonding or family attachment style, but to date there is no single measure covering both styles. The authors designed a statement matrix with 116 items for this purpose and compared it with the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) in a study with 718 university students. After exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, five factors (scales)-namely, Paternal/Maternal Encouragement (5 items each), Paternal/Maternal Abuse (5 items each), Paternal/ Maternal Freedom Release (5 items each), General Attachment (5 items), and Paternal/Maternal Dominance (4 items each)-were defined to form a Family Relationship Questionnaire (FRQ). The internal alphas of the factors ranged from .64 to .83, and their congruency coefficients were .93 to .98 in samples regarding father and mother. Women scored significantly higher on FRQ General Attachment and Maternal Encouragement and lower on Paternal Abuse than men did; only children scored significantly
... A longitudinal study of youth in long-term foster care identified involvement as a specific caregiving dimension associated with caregivers providing a secure base for youth in their care (Schofield & Beek, 2005). They discussed potential challenges youth with a history of maltreatment may experience in discovering and trusting caregiver availability, and the importance of caregivers promoting trust in their availability, accessibility, and dependability. ...
... They found that characteristics of availability and accessibility built intimacy and trust in the caregiver-youth relationship. For the purposes of this study, and similar to the work of Schofield and Beek (2005), caregiver involvement was defined as youth's perceptions of their caregiver's interest in them, time spent with them, and helpful things they have done for them. ...
... Attachment theory, which has been widely applied to discussions of youth in out-of-home child welfare placements (e.g. Haight et al., 2003;McWey, 2004;Schofield & Beek, 2005), suggests that that youth who experience an attachment loss will exhibit distress even if that person is replaced with another capable caregiver (Bowlby, 1977). Reported problematic youth behaviour following contact with their biological parents may be an attachment response to loss, rather than the sign of serious behaviour problems. ...
Article
Positive family relationships are important for child well-being. However, family relationships are unique for youth in out-of-home child welfare placements because they involve both biological and foster parents. The aim of this study was to test the interactive association between current caregiver involvement and contact with biological parents on youths’ externalising symptoms using a sample representative of youth in out-of-home child welfare placements in the United States. Findings supported a significant interaction between current caregiver involvement and the amount of biological parent contact on youths’ externalising symptoms, such that there was a more pronounced buffering effect of high caregiver involvement on youth externalising symptoms when there was more frequent youth contact with biological parents. Results can be used to support education initiatives about the importance of visitation for caseworkers and parents, and interventions aimed at promoting positive biological family and foster parent relationships focused on the best interests of the child.
... Examples of positive engagement can include (but are not limited to): attending scheduled sessions; interacting positively with the clinician; noticing, attuning to, and responding to the child's feelings; completing homework and assigned tasks; and finding agreement with the clinician and other caregivers on therapeutic goals and tasks for the child. We consider the above-described markers of engagement to map onto the qualities that Schofield & Beek (2005) outlined as necessary for demonstrating secure caregiving style. ...
... According to Bowlby (1983) and Ainsworth (1978), the availability of a "secure base" is necessary for the child to develop a healthy attachment. This secure base begins to develop as the caregiver(s) demonstrates availability, sensitivity, acceptance, and cooperation (Schofield & Beek, 2005). We postulate that the child client will notice their caregiver(s) engaging positively with them, the therapy, and the clinician in a manner that demonstrate this availability, sensitivity, acceptance, and cooperation. ...
Article
This study was a qualitative analysis of indicators of caregiver engagement found to impact child response to trauma therapy. There is currently a dearth of research examining the different ways in which parents engage in their child’s trauma therapy as well as how this engagement affects treatment response. The current study used a Task Analysis to explore three “resolved” treatment cases and three “unresolved” cases. Children were between the ages of 6–18 undergoing trauma therapy at a children’s mental health facility in Canada. Cases were qualitatively analyzed for caregiver Positive Engagement Indicators (PEIs) and Negative Engagement Indicators (NEIs). Using an iterative process, four factors were identified as particularly impactful regarding treatment resolution. These factions included the presence of conflict between caregivers, therapists, and children, and low caregiver session attendance. Treatment implications were discussed.
... Even though the participants were part of a specialized foster care treatment model, the results from this study seem to be consistent with previous research on what is required to build the relationship between the foster child and the foster parent. To spend a lot of time together in everyday life, humor and having fun together (Hedin, 2014;Hedin et al., 2011) seem to be important factors that are necessary to build a sense of security in the relationship, and security becomes a prerequisite for liking each other (Biehal, 2014;Schofield & Beek, 2005). To be a foster parent in a specialized foster care context could be experienced as more compli-cated since it can be perceived as a role conflict to be a parent on one hand, and a professional carer on the other. ...
... Both the foster children and the foster parents in Study 3 relate to what a 'real' family is assumed to be, and they often try to build something that is similar to a 'real' family, or different, but still valuable. This is consistent with previous foster care research that has shown the importance of inclusion in the family and how both parties work with these issues (Christiansen et al., 2013;Ie, 2022;Schofield & Beek, 2005;Storer et al., 2014). Most of the children and foster parents like each other but struggle with concepts such as 'family' and with defining their relationship. ...
... La implicación de estos dos puntos para el campo del acogimiento familiar es clara: es fundamental valorar los contextos y apoyos en el presente de los menores en acogimiento familiar, porque pueden contribuir a la recuperación y a la buena adaptación a pesar de la adversidad que han sufrido. La familia acogedora y su capacidad educativa y parental tienen un papel privilegiado por la importancia del contexto familiar para el desarrollo y por su potencial capacidad terapéutica en menores con adversidad temprana (Schofield y Beek, 2005). ...
... En la investigación en acogimiento familiar, sin embargo, este tema se ha estudiado de manera limitada. La literatura disponible apunta a que muchas de las características de parentalidad positiva en la población general como un estilo educativo democrático, comunicación, bajo estrés parental, calidez en la relación, establecimiento de normas, apoyo en la familia o una orientación centrada en las necesidades infantiles también están relacionadas con una mejor adaptación en los menores acogidos y un mejor funcionamiento del acogimiento familiar (Berrick y Skivenes, 2012;Fuentes et al., 2015;Jiménez et al., 2013;Jiménez y Palacios, 2008;Schofield y Beek, 2005;Sinclair y Wilson, 2003). En relación con las representaciones mentales de apego, en las que los acogedores pueden jugar un papel especialmente relevante, se ha encontrado que tanto un estilo de apego seguro-autónomo, como la sensibilidad en los acogedores tienen una influencia positiva (Bovenschen et al., 2016;Dozier, Stovall-McClough, Albus y Bates, 2001). ...
Article
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Este artículo presenta una revisión de algunas líneas de investigación centradas en el acogimiento familiar sobre las que sería conveniente ampliar nuestro conocimiento, particularmente en España. Para que la medida de acogimiento familiar se ajuste mejor a las necesidades de los menores es fundamental dar el salto de los estudios descriptivos al análisis de los procesos relacionados con una mejor adaptación. Con motivo de una investigación actualmente en marcha por los autores, en este artículo se repasan algunas de las áreas más relevantes para el desarrollo de los menores en acogimiento familiar que aún están escasamente estudiadas. Concretamente, las áreas revisadas son la auto-regulación, las representaciones mentales de apego, la salud mental y la familia acogedora como contexto de recuperación. En cada una de ellas se subraya su importancia en el acogimiento familiar y se repasan los estudios más relevantes. El artículo finaliza con algunas conclusiones derivadas de la revisión.
... This is consistent with the social referencing theory (Feinman 1982;Walden 1991), which emphasises that a parent's positive affective response to a particular environment is a message to the child about the safety of that environment, which that child can then explore without fear. Also, Schofield and Beek (2005) suggested that parents can generally develop a child's sense of inner security by promoting his or her reflective function, self-esteem and autonomy, and fostering trust in parental availability. Schofield and Beek (2005) and Zilberstein and Messer (2010) pointed out that a child's inner sense of security is supported by the experience of long-term caregivers' care and stable family relationships. ...
... Also, Schofield and Beek (2005) suggested that parents can generally develop a child's sense of inner security by promoting his or her reflective function, self-esteem and autonomy, and fostering trust in parental availability. Schofield and Beek (2005) and Zilberstein and Messer (2010) pointed out that a child's inner sense of security is supported by the experience of long-term caregivers' care and stable family relationships. A possible explanation for the adaptive parenting styles of most of our participants' parents may be the parents' higher education, secure attachment and the absence of ADHD, which is also suggested by some other studies (Nahas, Normandeau, and Lapointe 2017;Dallos and Smart 2011). ...
Article
An increasing number of recent studies in the field of special needs education have recognised the importance of factors supporting school preparation and inclusion of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recent studies have also highlighted the need for further detailed investigation of the lived school experience in clinical samples of ADHD students. Therefore, the goal of this qualitative study was to explore the factors that ADHD students perceived as supportive for their school functioning. The sample consisted of 20 students with ADHD from the Czech Republic, aged 12 to 14 years. Thematic analysis of the interviews with ADHD students revealed the following supportive factors for effective functioning and inclusion of ADHD students at school: parenting style respecting the special needs of ADHD students, close friendship of ADHD students with their peers, openness and warmth of the teachers, practical teachers’ and parents’ interventions tailored to the strengths of ADHD students and ADHD students’ own effort to manage ADHD manifestations at school. Based on these findings, several practical recommendations and implications are formulated.
... Secondly, children's participation in the decision-making process in care and protection cases has an instrumental value in facilitating better outcomes and contributing to the success of interventions (Cashmore, 2002;Vis et al., 2011). Their participation makes the interventions more responsive to their wishes and expectations, thus promoting the effectiveness of the intervention (Archard & Skivenes, 2009;Barnes, 2012) and leading to more accurate decisions and improved outcomes for the children's protection (Barnes, 2012;Bessell, 2011;Križ & Roundtree-Swain, 2017;Mcleod, 2007;Schofield & Beek, 2005;Woolfson, Heffernan, Paul, & Brown, 2010). Henaghan (2017) argues that if children are to be affected by a decision, the more that is understood about the children's views and positions, the better the decision is likely to be, including being more inclusive and responsive to explicit and stated needs (Sinclair & Franklin, 2000). ...
... Križ and Roundtree-Swain (2017) also found that participation of children can lead to better and positive outcomes. Barnes (2012), Mcleod (2007) and Schofield and Beek (2005) all note that listening to and informing children guarantees that protection plans have more positive and effective results. ...
... Individuals with experience of early adversity, including those who have spent time in foster care, are more likely to show disruptions in their trust of the world and others (Dozier 2005;Eldridge, John, and Gleeson 2020;Hyde et al. 2017;Nesmith and Christophersen 2014;Schofield and Beek 2005). These disruptions of trust may detrimentally affect quality of life and multiple areas of wellbeing (Campbell et al. 2021;Eldridge, John, and Gleeson 2020). ...
... However, epistemic trust, alongside other forms of trust, may not play an equally important role in all fostering relationships. For example, Schofield and Beek (2005) emphasise the importance of different factors alongside trust including promotion of self-esteem, a sense of family membership and autonomy as all crucial factors in the development of supporting relationships in foster care. There be a proportion of children who, dependent on differing early experiences, enter foster care with appropriate and adaptive epistemic trust where this is not an important area for development through a fostering relationship, but instead an existing area of resilience. ...
Article
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Novel psychological theories are often conceived in a general or heuristic form that can benefit from development and granulation through context-specific theory testing. Here, a theory-testing single case study methodology, adapted from an approach developed in the field of psychoanalysis, is presented. The study exemplifies this methodology though an interrogation of the explanatory value of a relatively new child development theory, the theory of epistemic trust, in the context of the relationship between a foster carer (“John”) and a young person in their care (“Buster”). Using in-depth interview material, the ways and extent to which the theory of epistemic trust could aid understanding of this fostering relationship are examined. We discuss the implications for the development of the theory of epistemic trust and the applications of these findings to social work contexts. The strengths and limitations of this theory-testing case study approach are explored.
... The medical needs can be explained by the fact that many children in foster care have health problems, such as incomplete immunisation, vision problems, respiratory problems, allergies and dental issues (Steenbakkers et al, 2018). Belongingness needs means that foster children require continuity in relationships with sensitive and responsive carers who can meet their needs and provide a secure base (Schofield and Beek, 2005). The term 'secure base' comes from attachment theory and refers to the idea that during their development, children need a secure base from which to explore the world and a safe haven to return to when the world is perceived as dangerous (Ainsworth et al, 1978;Bowlby, 2010). ...
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The concept of matching refers to the process of selecting a family foster home to fit an individual child in placement. Matching is important for the quality of care, as the carers need the necessary resources to meet the child’s needs. Failure in matching can have negative consequences, such as a ‘breakdown’. The aim of this article is to explore the social workers’ practice when matching children and foster carers to ensure the children will receive good care and avoid a placement change. The article uses a qualitative approach and is based on interviews with 31 participants. Social workers and managers at municipal social services, as well as consultants, were interviewed about their work. The professionals reflected on what aspects they perceive as most important in matching and what challenges they encounter that complicate the process. Narratives of successful matches often focused on the characteristics, competence and experience of the foster carers to meet the needs of the children. Some of the challenges highlighted were time pressure and a lack of family foster homes to choose from. This means that professionals have to compromise and prioritise what is most important in relation to the needs of the child.
... Establishing a bridge between attachment theory and research, on the one hand, and the practical application of family placement, on the other, is imperative, as attachment theory consistently presents a scientifically rigorous yet potentially feasible framework that enables the comprehension of children's distressing and complex behaviors, while also guiding caregivers in fostering a secure foundation for these children (55). The theoretical framework for reducing psychological crises and enhancing mental health among children from the perspective of a secure base has yet to be fully elucidated, and thus, further in-depth research is required for its theoretical and practical construction. ...
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Background and Objective Childhood is a crucial period for the formation of an individual’s attachment type. Previous studies focused more on how to directly intervene in children’s mental health problems such as depression, and less on how to improve children’s mental health from the perspective of attachment relationship. Secure base, as one of the core concepts of attachment theory, plays an important role in the whole process of children’s psychological development. In this article, we review the concept of the secure base, describe current clinical practice and suggest future directions. Methods A literature search was performed within electronic databases such as Web of Science, PubMed, and CNKI. Chinese and English articles focusing on the secure base and attachment relationship among children were retrieved. Their publication dates were set from the inception of the database to August 6, 2024. Key Content and Findings While the secure base significantly impacts early childhood, a safe base may also be established through group and teacher-student relationships to activate individual secure attachment schemas. Most prior studies concentrated on the mother-child bond, with limited exploration of the father’s role in the family dynamic. Furthermore, children’s secure attachment development is not only influenced by parents’ secure base script knowledge (SBSK) but also by intergenerational transmission. The underlying structure of secure base scripting knowledge plays a distinct role in middle childhood mental health. Conclusions The mechanism by which family structure, the functional division of family roles, and the potential structure of safe-base script knowledge influence children’s secure attachment development at various stages warrants further elucidation, including investigating cross-gender and cross-cultural stability. To facilitate the development of children’s secure attachment pathways, it is essential to consider different attachment styles within parents and diverse family structures (including those in lesbian, gay, bisexual). From a clinical psychotherapy perspective, this review offered novel insights and practical guidance on how the secure base mechanism impacts children’s mental health, with the overarching goal of mitigating the risk of mental health problems.
... It is conceivable that caregivers, although with the best of intentions, may unintentionally apply an inappropriate parenting style due to the stigmatizing beliefs they hold toward these children (a phenomenon termed 'double victimization,' involving compassion for what the child may have experienced), resulting in teenagers adopting a dominant attitude. While children in foster care are often identified as having greater emotional disturbances (Mancinelli et al., 2021), these behaviors could also be viewed as attempts to control the caregiver-a mechanism that may be employed for survival, particularly in the face of resource deprivation situations (Schofield & Beek, 2005. Caregivers' biases may stem from insufficient knowledge about attachment development. ...
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Introduction The social environment of children in foster care is one of the factors that impact on their sexual and reproductive development. Understanding these aspects is essential for the development of effective prevention strategies informed by research. Our aim is to explore the primary concerns of caregivers regarding the sexual development of teenagers in foster care. Methods The participants, 24 teenage foster caregivers, aged 32 to 55 years, were recruited through a social service network collaborating with foster families.Three focus groups’ discussion was conducted with foster caregivers using a semi-structured interview between April and June 2023. A qualitative reflexive thematic analysis was employed, focusing on themes related to foster caregivers’ concerns and challenges regarding the sexual development of the foster teenagers. Researchers conducted line-by-line coding inductively using NVIVO 14 software. Results The findings revealed that caregivers are concerned about teenagers’ exposure to sexual risks, challenges in establishing healthy relationship boundaries, dominant behaviors, and early expressions of sexuality. However, certain inaccuracies in attribution and interpretation were identified, which may be attributed to a lack of knowledge and information about normative sexual development, attachment, resilience, and insufficient training as an affective-sexual educator. The participating foster caregivers often linked sexual behaviors and distorted thoughts of teenagers with past childhood experiences. Conclusions The gathered information contributes to a deeper understanding of the needs and deficiencies of this group. Policy Implications This data lays the groundwork for designing more targeted interventions tailored to the needs identified by caregivers, which demand an immediate response.
... Furthermore, the present study also found that parentchild separation for 3 months or longer before the age of 3 reduces the quality of parent-child and peer relationships later in life. Although existing evidence cannot be directly compared to our findings, potential psychological mechanisms may be related to the experience of emotional deprivation, lack of security, and difficulties in forming self-identity following separation [48,49]. A prospective cohort study found that greater parental involvement during caregiving for children aged 0-7 years old is associated with a reduced risk of depression at 18 years old [50]. ...
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Objective The present study aimed to investigate the long-term effects of parent–child separation during infancy and early childhood on depression, social relationships including parent–child and peer relationships, and academic performance during adolescence and early adulthood. Methods Data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) were analyzed, which included a sample of 3829 children aged 4–15 years from 25 provinces over a period of 8 years. The study examined the association between early parent–child separation and outcomes related to depression, social and academic performance, comparing outcomes between individuals with and without early separation experiences. A series of subgroup analyses were conducted to further explore these associations. Results Parent–child separation lasting 3 months or longer was found to be associated with moderate to severe levels of depression and impaired social relationships during adolescence and early adulthood, particularly among males, adolescents, urban dwellers, and those with less educated mothers. Children who experienced parent–child separation for 3 months or longer showed a positive correlation between separation duration and depression. Short-term separations under 3 months did not show this association. The duration of separation also had a negative correlation with parent–child and peer relationships, as well as academic performance. Conclusion Early parent–child separation has significant adverse effects on the mental health, social and academic performance of adolescents and early adulthood, especially among males, adolescents, urban residents, and those with lower maternal education. The severity of depression was found to be related to the duration of separation, highlighting the importance of minimizing separation to less than 3 months for children under the age of 3. These findings underscore the critical role of early parental care and the need for targeted interventions for high-risk populations.
... Empirical studies concerning secure caregiving in parent-child dyads and adult relationships research have consistently shown the association between secure caregiving patterns and support for exploratory behaviors (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978;Crittenden, 1994;Feeney & Collins, 2001). Providing a secure base for inspiring the "pleasures of exploration" (Schofield & Beek, 2005) is also particularly important for children in RC for them to develop autonomy and engage in independent life projects in the future (Kwon & Yang, 2020;NISS, 2021). In this sense, mentalization-based processes in professionals working in RC settings could be associated with the provision of secure base behaviors, namely, considering autonomy granting. ...
... Today, most parents are not highly involved in the early academic acquisition of their children. In the home mothers are the first teachers, they are caregivers and minders of the child during the critical period of their development, though fathers do as well (Reay, 1999;Schofield & Beek, 2005). The problem arises from the fact that the jobs of so many parents are so demanding and this may explain why they do not have ample time for their children. ...
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The film of this study has on the influence of the home environment on the academic performance of pupils in the isolo local government area of Lagos State. The study then revealed that parental socioeconomic and stability at home all have bearing on the academic performance of children at the primary school level
... When the change is intended to stop maltreatment, it is not clear whether the cost of separation offsets the cost of maltreatment; this, of course, varies in each case, but the cost to children of experiencing another separation is often overlooked in the effort to prevent further maltreatment. Although young children can attach to a new caregiver [82], this ability diminishes with each separation and subsequent new caregiver [83]. Once impermanence becomes an individual's primary model, an intergenerational cycle of broken relationships might be initiated. ...
Chapter
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More than a million children are separated from their parents by government authorities. We review the research on the effects of separation, including separation for parental maltreatment, adoption, illegal immigration, parental incarceration, and Indigenous status. The effects were universally negative, did not differ by reason for separation, and included neurological change from psychological trauma, precocious sexual maturity, physical and sexual abuse, neglect, academic delay, poor peer relations, psychosomatic symptoms, psychiatric disorder, and behavior problems such as depression, anxiety, delinquency, self-harm, substance abuse, and inappropriate sexual behavior. There were indications that separation led to intergenerational cycles of family separation. The research indicated that children are most vulnerable from 9 months to 9 years of age. We suggest that the negative effects of separation be considered explicitly when courts make placement decisions. Professionals who can reduce children’s suffering from separation are legislators, policy makers, social workers, mental health professionals, attorneys, and judges.
... On the other hand, youth placed in foster care at an older age describe permanency as connections to supportive adults (Walters 2011) and a home to which they can return (Cashmore and Paxman 2006). It is this sense of belonging and connection that has consistently been found to be associated with positive outcomes for former foster youth (Biehal et al. 2010;Cashmore and Paxman 2006;Schofield and Beek 2005;Ward 2011). Permanency for older youth may take the form of building up supportive long-term connections for a secure base from which to navigate adulthood (Boddy 2013); this has been an explicit policy focus in the U.S. (e.g. ...
... Also, the duration of the foster home placement could change what children and foster parents call each other over time. One qualitative study gives the impression that a longer duration may be related to 'more' integration and to becoming part of the family (Schofield & Beek, 2005), which again might be reflected in the use of names such as mum or dad. Similarly, other studies found that long-term foster mothers had less of a professional identity (Blythe et al., 2012;Smyth & McHugh, 2006) and perceived themselves as mothers and not as foster-carers (Blythe et al., 2012). ...
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This longitudinal study examines the child's place in the foster family through the use of conventional names for familial figures (e.g., ‘mum/dad’) and through the foster parents' intention to adopt the child. Data were collected at two time points during childhood and adolescence, among children placed in kinship and non‐kinship foster care in Norway. Children placed at a younger age and children in non‐kinship foster care were more likely to call their foster parents for ‘mum/dad’. Children placed at an older age and children in non‐kinship care were more often presented as ‘foster child’ by their foster parents. Only 25%–34% of foster parents reported having considered adoption. The most common reason for not considering adoption was that they already deemed to be a family. The use of conventional names for familial figures in foster families might not necessarily reflect the child's integration into a foster family as it seems to be related to the age of the child at placement rather than to the duration of placement. Intention to adopt was relatively low, mostly because foster parents considered adoption as not necessary.
... Rooted in the idea that these children, who have gone through adverse experiences in the early years of their life, are in high need of positive family experiences through which they can recover and develop in the best possible ways, society often sets high standards for foster carers and adoptive parents. For instance, research has emphasised the importance of a secure attachment state of mind in parents if they are going to manage the conflicting and vulnerable representations that these children bring with them into their new families (Levy & Orlans, 2003;Schofield & Beek, 2005). Moreover, due to underdeveloped mentalizing capacities and/or traumainduced mentalizing breakdowns (Midgley et al., 2017c), children who have experienced complex trauma often feel unsure about their own world of feelings and intentions and misread others' intentions. ...
... Such children are not likely to view caregivers as being a source of safety, and instead typically show an increase in aggressive and hyperactive behaviors, which Berry and Barth (1989) suggest disrupt healthy or secure attachment with their adopted parents. These children have apparently learned to adapt to an abusive and inconsistent caregiver by becoming cautiously self-reliant, and are often described as glib, manipulative and disingenuous in their interactions with others as they move through childhood (Schofield & Beek, 2005). Perception and exposure to threatening experiences in childhood alters emotional development to enhance the identification of potential threats in the environment and magnify emotional responses to those threats (McLaughlin, 2017). ...
... In some countries, there is also an emphasis on permanency for children who cannot remain with or return to their families of origin, meaning that long-term out-of-home care (OHC) is not viewed as an acceptable environment for children. Of note, the adoption of children from OHC varies substantially across countries, reflecting unresolved debates about the suitability of long-term OHC for children's developmental needs (Schofield & Beek, 2005;Tarja & Marit, 2021). Although a legally recognized family can facilitate core elements of children's development, such as secure attachment, belongingness, and a healthy cultural identity, available evidence suggests that we should not assume those elements present merely because a child avoided or exited from OHC (Biehal, 2007;Font et al., 2021), especially in the context of child abuse and neglect (Baer & Martinez, 2006;Joseph et al., 2014). ...
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Although the negative repercussions of child abuse and neglect are well-established, many countries continue to struggle with mounting an effective and supportive response for children and families. The child welfare system—which takes varying forms depending on the time period and country—is the primary governmental institution tasked with responding to concerns about abuse and neglect. These systems face significant challenges in protecting and supporting children, as well as sustained criticism for their tactics and potential for inflicting harm. This commentary seeks to (1) take stock of major achievements in understanding, measuring, and tracking the nature and impacts of child welfare system involvement; (2) identify the key barriers that inhibit our understanding of CWS impacts on children’s wellbeing; and (3) suggest the elements of a research and evaluation agenda for moving the field forward.
... Further, decision-making is done using the Best Decision Making Method (De Kinderombudsman, 2020), where identity and experience forms the basis of the decision-making process. Care planning is formed using the Secure Base Method (Schofield & Beek, 2005) with extra attention to the needs of LGBTQIA+ young people and the questions that their SOGIE may pose to creating a secure base. Key to this approach is the understanding that it is not the young person who needs to make adjustments and change; rather, the responsibility for providing a secure base lies with the foster carers and professionals. ...
Chapter
Revitalizing Residential Care for Children and Youth: Cross-National Trends and Challenges addresses the question of how societies with developed welfare and social service systems assess current needs and future directions in their residential child and youth care sectors. This includes dealing with historical concerns raised about the placement of children and youth in residential care settings, as well as identifying innovative strategies that offer new pathways for the integration of this often-neglected sector of service within the broader area of child welfare. Each of the 16 countries selected for inclusion is examined through a common matrix that provides information about the current policy context, key trends and initiatives, characteristics of children and youth served, preparation of residential care personnel, promising programmatic innovations, and present strengths and challenges. Individual country analyses are supplemented by regional exemplars of innovative residential programs and practice in areas such as family engagement, helping youth with the transition from care to community, promising model programs, and reflections on recent policy reform initiatives. In addition to takeaways from each country, the book’s closing chapter identifies specific implications for policy reform, empirical research, and residential program innovation. What sets this book apart is its systematic cross-national appraisal of residential care for children and youth with an eye toward identifying innovative policies and practices undergirded by research. In so doing, it offers a unique contribution to the international child welfare literature.
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This study investigated the experiences of adoptive parents in Italy, focusing on the legal, psychological and social dimensions of adoption. An online questionnaire was used to explore different facets of the adoption process, including pre-adoption concerns and post-adoption adjustment process. Key findings highlight the prevalence of international adoption, the emotional journey of adoptive parents and the critical role of social support. The study highlights the importance of open communication about adoption, the need for specialist support services and the resilience of adoptive families. The findings of this research aim to inform policy, practice and future research by highlighting the unique challenges faced by adoptive parents in Italy.
Article
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The family plays a pivotal role in shaping and nurturing mental health, serving as the foundational support system for individuals across all stages of life. Positive family dynamics, including open communication, emotional support, and strong interpersonal relationships, are critical in fostering resilience, coping mechanisms, and emotional well-being. Conversely, dysfunctional family environments, characterized by neglect, abuse, or poor communication, can contribute to mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, and behavioral issues. This paper explores the intricate relationship between family involvement and mental health, highlighting the protective factors associated with nurturing family practices and the adverse effects of familial dysfunction. It further examines how cultural, social, and economic factors influence family roles in mental health maintenance. Recommendations for strengthening family-based mental health interventions, such as family therapy and education programs, are also discussed. Emphasizing the role of family as a cornerstone of mental health, this study underscores the importance of collective efforts to create supportive home environments conducive to psychological well-being.
Article
Abstract Background Foster parents can be placed under significant demands when caring for foster children with extensive needs. Coming to terms with the challenges they have to face can be a daunting prospect. To examine foster parents' experiences is vital with a view to enhancing their resilience amid sustained demands and improving the professional support offered to them. Objective This study explores foster parents' lived experience of caring for foster children with mental illness and attachment difficulties. Participants and settings Twenty-two foster parents, caring for foster children aged 2–17, were recruited from a mental health clinic providing assessment and treatment to children. Methods In this qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed using a descriptive phenomenological psychological approach. Results Our analysis revealed four interrelated constituents describing the foster parents' experiences: 1) Wanting to help a child, 2) Adjustments were harder than expected, 3) Sacrifices and suppression of needs, and 4) Commitment and love mixed with ambivalence. Conclusion The findings highlight that being a foster parent for children with mental illness and attachment difficulties demands heightened patience, knowledge and understanding. It also involves a substantial emotional investment. This underscores the importance of addressing feelings of love, shame, and guilt in this context. Balancing the needs of the foster child with the well-being of the foster family can be challenging. Foster parents may need extensive support from professionals who are familiar with their unique circumstances to increase their feeling of self-efficacy and reduce ambivalent feelings regarding their role as caregivers.
Chapter
This chapter asks why attachment and trauma-informed approaches are not more widely implemented? It suggests that many of the published empirical studies are limited in terms of scope and methodology, which might be criticised as having a pseudo-scientific or positivist bias, which in turn undermines their wider credibility. It describes some of the more simplistic behaviourist objections to AAS, linking these with the ‘traditionalist’ ideologies of the earlier Black Papers and of contemporary Conservative politicians. It further considers neoliberal economic critiques suggesting a ‘trade-off’ between wellbeing and school attainment. Other scientific critiques are also examined, including McMahon and Etchells’ (Interdisciplinary bridging: A design-based approach to enhancing the learning sciences in Primary Initial Teacher Education. https://impact.chartered.college/author/kendra_mcmahon/, 2018) argument for more critical approaches to neurobiology in education, and Woolgar and Simmonds’ (The diverse neurobiological processes and legacies of early adversity: Implications for practice. Adoption and Fostering, 43(3), 241–255, 2019) suggestion that over-simplified ‘scientific’ views of attachment can lead to misplaced diagnoses, which fail to take into account individuals’ wider social and economic context. The chapter points up inconsistencies within social care and psychotherapy, between those who take a social or universal approach and those who emphasise individual therapy. It also considers challenges from postmodernist writers who suggest that all change is illusory, arguing from a Freirean perspective, as in the previous chapter, that teachers’ classroom experience of the contradictions of neoliberal policy can lead to consciously transformative approaches.
Article
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Attachment theory provides a useful conceptual framework for understanding trauma and the treatment of children who have been abused. This article examines childhood trauma and attachment issues from the perspective of behavior analysis, and provides a theoretical basis for two alternative treatment models for previously abused children and their foster or adoptive parents: rational cognitive emotive behavioral therapy and trauma-based psychotherapy. These new treatment approaches are based on the integration of attachment theory and basic concepts and principles of rational thought and behavior analysis. These therapeutic models provide dyadic, cognitive, and emotive interventions that encourage behavior change with foster or adopted children who have been abused or neglected as part of their early experiences. The role of emotion in behavioral causation and the teaching and learning of different behavior are central to the treatment process, just as they are central features in healthy parent child relationships. Conclusions are reached that “familial and therapeutic environments” in which perception and previous learning guide parent child interaction are more important than diagnostic orientation, and implications for specific cognitive and behavioral interventions are suggested.
Technical Report
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The Texas Youth Permanency Study followed a cohort of youth in foster care (N = 197; 14 years and older) as they entered adulthood. By examining their experiences and trajectories over a three-year period we sought to find new ways of understanding the factors that allow youth in foster care to thrive in young adulthood. Our findings show that rather than focusing solely on attaining legal permanency as a measure of success, a new model for child welfare should prioritize relational permanency, normalcy, and competency. For youth to successfully transition to adulthood they need a positive sense of identity and self-worth, healthy relationships and lasting connections, support for attaining mental health, skills for independent living, and financial and housing stability. Our recommendations aim to create an environment where youth can thrive, attain social emotional wellbeing, and begin to master the tasks of adulthood.
Technical Report
The Texas Youth Permanency Study followed a cohort of youth in foster care (N = 197; 14 years and older) as they entered adulthood. By examining their experiences and trajectories over a three-year period we sought to find new ways of understanding the factors that allow youth in foster care to thrive in young adulthood. We conducted quarterly surveys and yearly interviews. Our findings highlight that rather than focusing solely on attaining legal permanency as a measure of success, a new model for child welfare should prioritize relational permanency, normalcy, and competency. For youth to successfully transition to adulthood they need a positive sense of identity and self-worth, healthy relationships and lasting connections, support for attaining mental health, skills for independent living, and financial and housing stability. Our recommendations aim to create an environment where youth can thrive, attain social emotional wellbeing, and begin to master the tasks of adulthood.
Article
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This paper focuses on the strength of social norms that define the right development of the body in time. It also analyzes how the social positions of age, gender and generation intertwine in the definition of such a legitimate body. The starting point is anthropological research carried out in France between 2018 and 2020 among girls and women affected by Turner syndrome, a rare genetic condition causing small stature, ovarian insufficiency, a delay or absence of puberty, and infertility. We first explore how measuring the body has become central in the social construction of the concept of age-appropriateness. We then present four women' narratives, which express various forms of desynchronization: the gap between physical appearance, chronological age and age status; the cleft between the physical development induced by hormone therapy and being in a particular stage in life; the difference between chronological and reproductive age; and lastly, the trouble in a generational position related to infertility. For women suffering from this genetic condition, the gap between bodies, time and social statuses associated with age, gender and generation, may engender a feeling of “being out of place.” The alignment of body and time is then one of the bastions of essentialization and naturalization. Finally, we stress the complex interplay of bodily and social markers of age and gender, and their role in social relations as both a resource and a constraint. Thus, while the syndrome may cause distress and sometimes a lack of legitimacy, it also leads to a critical re-examination of hegemonic models of womanhood and their intersection with age positions.
Experiment Findings
Over the past 3 years, our Texas Permanency Study has followed 197 youth in foster care to discover what helps them thrive in adulthood. Our final report shows that supporting better outcomes in emerging adulthood means: - Prioritizing lasting connections with caring adults, peers, and community - Providing an environment conducive to normal and developmentally appropriate social experiences - Supporting the development of competency through experiential learning - Increasing social emotional wellbeing through mental health services and sexual health and relationship education Read the full report here: https://utyps.socialwork.utexas.edu/2023/01/17/a-new-model-for-promoting-wellbeing-in-child-welfare-prioritizing-relational-permanency-normalcy-and-competency/
Chapter
Gwenzi presents the empirical findings on a study that was conducted on adolescents and youths’ family definitions and constructions of family membership in Zimbabwe. The study used mixed methodology, necessitating both quantitative and qualitative analyses, including descriptive statistics (means, frequencies, chi-squares), binary logistic regression, multinomial logistic regression and grounded thematic analysis. Key findings include the knowledge that there is no one definition of family for adolescents and youths in child welfare institutions. Family is defined based on not only consanguinity but also affective characteristics such as love, care and support. Family membership groups were also diverse to include both biological and non-kin individuals. Family meanings are influenced by factors such as age, living arrangement, contact with the biological family and some precare circumstances, namely, neglect and orphanhood.
Experiment Findings
The Texas Youth Permanency Study (TYPS) is designed as a 5-year longitudinal study following 500 foster youth who are 14 – 21 years old at time of recruitment.
Article
Background: Many researches on maltreated and foster children highlighted internalized and externalized symptoms in this population. However, few studies have looked at how a child interacts with caregivers in the context of foster care. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the Emotion Regulation Strategies (ERS) of children in foster care and to highlight those most used in family and placement contexts. The parents’ and foster carers’ ERS are also analyzed in order to understand the co-regulatory processes at work. Method: An in-depth analysis of observation sequences was performed. Three data collection times were included in the observation protocol, spaced across a period of 6 months (t1, t2 and t3). Each observation, recorded using a video camera, comprised 45 minutes of free time and 15 minutes of structured tasks. Transcription and coding of ERS was performed for each sequence using a microanalytic method from the observations. Both children's and adults' ERS were coded. Results: Children tended to be readily distracted when interacting with adults. This behavior was more frequently observed with parents than with foster carers. While they tended to display relatively normative processes with a foster carer, they turned to pathological avoidance mechanisms such as physical venting or self-stimulation during their interactions with parents which highlighted the child’s disorganized behaviors in family context. Observations of interactions during structured tasks showed a significant reduction in distraction processes in adult-child relationships. Conclusion: This study highlights the prevalence of distraction behavior in foster children during their interactions with caregivers. It provides insight into how structured interactions create a containing framework that mitigates children's avoidance behaviors and so enhances adult-child collaboration.
Article
A majority of youths with prenatal substance exposure (PSE) have experienced out-of-home care (OHC), but there is a lack of studies on its association with mental health in adolescence and adulthood. The main aim of this retrospective longitudinal cohort study was to explore whether type of OHC (family/institutional) and number of OHC placements are associated with mental and behavioral disorders among youth with PSE (n=393) and unexposed controls (n=147) after controlling for the effect of important confounding factors. Before these analyses, characteristics of OHC and factors associated with the age at entry to care were analyzed separately in both groups. Data from hospital medical records and nine registers were merged and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations and multivariate Cox regression models. Exposed youths entered OHC earlier in life, and the lifetime duration of OHC was longer with more placements and a higher proportion of family-type OHC. Despite these differences in OHC history, a high number of placements was associated with behavioral and emotional disorders with onset in childhood and adolescence (International Statistical Classification of Diseases ICD-10, F90-F98) among both the exposed and controls. Among the exposed, the number of placements and institutional care were also associated with later appearing mental and behavioral disorders (F10-F69). The results suggest that interventions to support placement stability and favor family-type care could be beneficial in the promotion of mental health among children and youth entering OHC.
Article
The present article reports foster carer perceptions of the long-term effectiveness of a carer-focussed training intervention – the Fostering Changes (FC) programme. Five foster carers who completed FC at a not-for-profit child and family agency in New Zealand were interviewed 13–15 months post-training about their experiences and perceptions of FC and its subsequent effectiveness. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) informed both data collection and analysis. Five superordinate themes were identified: (1) FC is perceived to be an effective training programme that provides sustained benefits; (2) foster carer training is crucially important; (3) the challenges of fostering continue, respective of training; (4) caregiver confidence gained from training wanes over time in the face of persistent challenges; (5) foster carers require ongoing therapeutic interventions and support because of their children's persistent behavioural and relational difficulties. The findings suggest that, while FC provides effective and relevant training, carers simultaneously require ongoing clinical services.
Thesis
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The way that children and families social workers make judgements and take decisions in their day-today practice has been an area of significant interest in the early part of the twenty-first century. However, the sensemaking process that underpins decision-making and judgement has received comparatively little scholarly attention. Social work supervision should offer a space where sensemaking can take place individually and collaboratively, yet little is known about what actually happens in supervision. This study contributes to addressing these gaps; using an ethnographic approach it explores how one-to-one supervision, informal supervision and peer discussion, and group case discussion support social workers' sensemaking. Data are derived from semi-structured interviews (n=22), recordings of formal one-to-one supervision sessions (n=17), and from participant observation of office case-talk (n=19) and group supervision (n=2) across two local authorities. The analysis highlights that social work sensemaking involves the process of constructing a case narrative through three stages: initial formulations, developing the narrative, and adopted accounts. Five key themes, situated within the first two sensemaking stages, are explored in presenting the analysis: case framing, case history, testing and weighing information, generating hypotheses, and feelings and relationships. In exploring key themes from the interview, supervision, and observation data, a key finding of the study is the context-dependence of how case narratives are presented and the role identity plays in these differing presentations. The way in which functions of supervision are dispersed across teams in day-today practice will also be highlighted as a key finding. Recommendations for practice are made, including the need for organisations to provide social workers and supervisors with spaces where they can engage with the emotional and relational aspects of their practice and explore their identity as social workers. 2
Chapter
The Department of Education estimates that somewhere between 6–12% of young people leaving local authority care enter some form of higher education (Department for Education, 2007). This is compared to a general figure of about 49% for those who are raised within more traditional birth-families. The former statistic is alarmingly low and presents a damning indictment of the abilities of, and opportunities afforded to, young people within the care system. If we accept that education is key to social mobility and provides protection against social exclusion, then social care and educational professionals need to encourage and inspire greater educational achievement for this group. Much of what is known about ‘high achievers’ in the care system is evidenced in the research undertaken by Jackson and colleagues (Ajayi & Quigley, 2006; Jackson, The education of children in care. University of Bristol, 1987). They stress the value of gaining higher-level qualifications in securing well-paid and fulfilling employment within a competitive labour market. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to explore the barriers and enablers that allow or prevent the successful transition to higher education for young people. The data presented is drawn from a doctoral study of young people with a care background who subsequently attended university. Drawing on a case study approach, the chapter will explore the account of one undergraduate student who spent a significant part of her later childhood in foster care. From this analysis, recommendations will be made in relation to improving current policy and practice.KeywordsCare leaversCare systemHigher educationSignificant adultsExtra-curricular activities
Article
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The study was to determine the difficulties of every inmates spouse suffer a lot due to the imprisonment of their husband and the start of covid19 pandemic. The study focus on the negative outcome and the emotion of every inmates spouses. And It argue that the initial shock of incarceration challenged these spouses‟ assumptive worlds, but they managed to overcome this crisis by finding meaning in the pandemic outbreak experience and using it as an opportunity for personal development. The respondent was having a trouble finding ways to survive in life due to covid19 pandemic and the imprisonment of their husband. It challenge them to be strong to stand in the most difficult time. The study found the following findings there were grouped together through themes such as (1) Family First regardless of everything, (2) Uncertainty of Family's future, (3) Facing Difficulty and Depressed on the situation, (4) Stand alone to face the challenges, (5) Pandemic Exacerbated Burden. generally, most of the participants have endured hardship and trouble finding work as a result of the pandemic. The inmates spouses struggled being a victim of epidemic may have significant connections with emotional behaviors. Based on the findings and conclusions, the researcher would like to recommend that inmate‟s spouses have a positive thinking and to look forward in the life. They should constantly have a strategy in place for how to obtain work while keeping the children's circumstances in mind, so that they may do their jobs without hesitation.
Chapter
Although school counselors have the ability to directly impact the academic, social/emotional, and career development of students, they may be unfamiliar with the unique experiences and educational barriers of foster care youth. School counselors must be knowledgeable about the unique challenges faced by students in foster care in order to be transformational leaders. This chapter presents background information about the foster care system, addresses considerations for students transitioning through and out of foster care, highlights transition pathways, and explores implications for school counselors working with this population.
Chapter
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After a brief summary of Bowlby's construct of Internal Working Models in attachment relationships, and review of relevant research, the chapter presents results from a short-term longitudinal study introducing the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT; Bretherton and Ridgeway, see Appendix, pp. 300-308 of this chapter). The authors report (1) children's detailed responses to each of the 5 stems of the Attachment Story Completion Task at 37 months, and (2) link ASCT attachment classifications translated into a security scale to the infancy Strange Situation with mother at 18 months (r = .33, p<.05), the Attachment Q-sort (mother) at age 25 months (.62, p<.001), and a Separation-Reunion Procedure at 37 months (.49, p<.01). Correlations of ASCT security with family cohesion and adaptability were .53 (p<.01) and .57 (p<.001) respectively. ASCT security was also related to the Bayley MDi and 25-months vocabulary.
Article
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When maladaptation is viewed as development rather than as disease, a transformed understanding results and a fundamentally different research agenda emerges. Within a developmental perspective, maladaptation is viewed as evolving through the successive adaptations of persons in their environments. It is not something a person "has" or an ineluctable expression of an endogenous pathogen. It is the complex result of a myriad of risk and protective factors operating over time. Key research questions within this framework center on discovery of factors that place individuals on pathways probabilistically leading to later disturbances and factors and processes which maintain individuals on, or deflect them from, such pathways once enjoined. There is an interest in recognizing patterns of maladaptation which, while not properly considered disorder themselves, commonly are precursors of disorder and also in conditions of risk that lie outside of the individual, as well as any endogenous influences. Likewise, there is a focus on factors and processes that lead individuals away from disorder that has emerged, which goes beyond interest in management of symptoms. Finally, many topics that currently are capturing attention in the field, such as "comorbidity" and "resilience," are seen in new ways from within the perspective of development.
Article
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This meta-analysis included 66 studies (N = 4,176) on parental antecedents of attachment security. The question addressed was whether maternal sensitivity is associated with infant attachment security, and what the strength of this relation is. It was hypothesized that studies more similar to Ainsworth's Baltimore study (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) would show stronger associations than studies diverging from this pioneering study. To create conceptually homogeneous sets of studies, experts divided the studies into 9 groups with similar constructs and measures of parenting. For each domain, a meta-analysis was performed to describe the central tendency, variability, and relevant moderators. After correction for attenuation, the 21 studies (N = 1,099) in which the Strange Situation procedure in nonclinical samples was used, as well as preceding or concurrent observational sensitivity measures, showed a combined effect size of r(1,097) = .24. According to Cohen's (1988) conventional criteria, the association is moderately strong. It is concluded that in normal settings sensitivity is an important but not exclusive condition of attachment security. Several other dimensions of parenting are identified as playing an equally important role. In attachment theory, a move to the contextual level is required to interpret the complex transactions between context and sensitivity in less stable and more stressful settings, and to pay more attention to nonshared environmental influences.
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The paper traces the relationship between attachment processes and the development of the capacity to envision mental states in self and others. We suggest that the ability to mentalize, to represent behavior in terms of mental states, or to have "a theory of mind" is a key determinant of self-organization which is acquired in the context of the child's early social relationships. Evidence for an association between the quality of attachment relationship and reflective function in the parent and the child is reviewed and interpreted in the context of current models of theory of mind development. A model of the development of self-organization is proposed which has at its core the caregiver's ability to communicate understanding of the child's intentional stance. The implications of the model for pathological self-development are explored, with specific reference to the consequences of maltreatment.
Article
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The Circle of Security intervention protocol is a 20-week, group-based, parent education and psychotherapy intervention designed to shift patterns of attachment-caregiving interactions in high-risk caregiver-child dyads to a more appropriate developmental pathway. All phases of the protocol, including the pre- and post-intervention assessments, and the intervention itself, are based on attachment theory and procedures, current research on early relationships, and object relations theory. Using edited videotapes of their interactions with their children, caregivers are encouraged: 1. to increase their sensitivity and appropriate responsiveness to the child's signals relevant to its moving away from to explore, and its moving back for comfort and soothing; 2. to increase their ability to reflect on their own and the child's behavior, thoughts and feelings regarding their attachment-caregiving interactions; and 3. to reflect on experiences in their own histories that affect their current caregiving patterns. In this paper we describe the conceptual background of the protocol, and the protocol itself. We then present a case study from our current data set of 75 dyads who have completed the protocol.
Book
To understand the way children develop, Bronfenbrenner believes that it is necessary to observe their behavior in natural settings, while they are interacting with familiar adults over prolonged periods of time. His book offers an important blueprint for constructing a new and ecologically valid psychology of development.
Article
This article highlights the importance of attachment issues for infants placed in foster care. We offer a framework for understanding how early separation and maltreatment may affect infants' ability to securely rely on a foster parent. We argue that disruptions in foster infants' primary attachment relationships, combined with a history of maltreatment, place these infants at risk for developing predominantly insecure or disorganized attachments to foster parents, regardless of foster parent characteristics. We argue that foster infants' successful passage through the foster care system requires a high level of foster parent sensitivity to their unique attachment needs. We also argue that this level of sensitivity is likely to require specialized training for foster parents.
Article
This paper reports on associations observed between Adult Attachment Interviews (AAIs) obtained from adoptive mothers, and emotional themes appearing in doll play narratives obtained from their recently adopted children. The children, aged 4-8 years, carried into their adoptive placements a history of consistently serious maltreatment, including neglect and abuse. Results reveal strong and significant influences of maternal state of mind regarding attachment upon their adopted children's story-completions. Mothers whose AAIs were judged insecure (either dismissing or preoccupied) were likely to have adopted children who, three months after placement, provided story-completions with higher levels of aggressiveness as compared to the stories provided by children adopted by mothers with secure-autonomous AAIs. Children whose adoptive mothers provided AAIs indicative of unresolved (as opposed to resolved) mourning regarding past loss or trauma provided story completions with higher scores for emotional themes such as 'parent appearing child-like' and 'throwing out or throwing away'. Results also include a qualitative section that provides narrative excerpts of maternal AAIs and children's story-completions. Discussion concerns the contribution these findings make to the literature on intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns, and the implications these findings have for child clinical work and social policy.
Article
Ethological attachment theory is a landmark of 20th century social and behavioral sciences theory and research. This new paradigm for understanding primary relationships across the lifespan evolved from John Bowlby's critique of psychoanalytic drive theory and his own clinical observations, supplemented by his knowledge of fields as diverse as primate ethology, control systems theory, and cognitive psychology. By the time he had written the first volume of his classic Attachment and Loss trilogy, Mary D. Salter Ainsworth's naturalistic observations in Uganda and Baltimore, and her theoretical and descriptive insights about maternal care and the secure base phenomenon had become integral to attachment theory. Patterns of Attachment reports the methods and key results of Ainsworth's landmark Baltimore Longitudinal Study. Following upon her naturalistic home observations in Uganda, the Baltimore project yielded a wealth of enduring, benchmark results on the nature of the child's tie to its primary caregiver and the importance of early experience. It also addressed a wide range of conceptual and methodological issues common to many developmental and longitudinal projects, especially issues of age appropriate assessment, quantifying behavior, and comprehending individual differences. In addition, Ainsworth and her students broke new ground, clarifying and defining new concepts, demonstrating the value of the ethological methods and insights about behavior. Today, as we enter the fourth generation of attachment study, we have a rich and growing catalogue of behavioral and narrative approaches to measuring attachment from infancy to adulthood. Each of them has roots in the Strange Situation and the secure base concept presented in Patterns of Attachment. It inclusion in the Psychology Press Classic Editions series reflects Patterns of Attachment's continuing significance and insures its availability to new generations of students, researchers, and clinicians.
Article
Children permanently separated from their birth families have to manage life-long issues of attachment, identity and loss. This article focuses on the issue of post- placement contact and discusses the qualities of foster carers and adopters that can best help children negotiate such issues when contact occurs. Two linked research studies provide data on young adopted children, and children in middle childhood placed in long-term foster care. Almost all foster children were found to be having frequent face-to-face contact, compared with only a small minority of adopted children. However, face-to-face contact was found to be more straightforward in the adoptive families, largely because such young children had less complex relationships with their birth relatives and easier relationships with their new parents. Adopters were centrally involved in contact meetings and able to act autonomously, whereas the experience of foster carers was much more varied, with some feeling excluded from decision-making. In both placement types, sensitive and empathic thinking and accepting values of foster carers and adopters were vital in helping children use contact meetings to make sense of their membership of two families. When such parental attributes were present, a wide range of contact arrangements could be successful.
Article
Attachment is that part of the infant-parent relationship con- cerned with protection and safety, and the infant's confidence that the caregiver will protect him or her. If the infant is confident that the caregiver will meet his or her needs for protection, the infant is considered to be securely attached. Secure infants feel safe with their caregiver and free to explore their social and physi- cal world without concern for protection. Ainsworth and her colleagues (1978, p. 20) used this analogy (attributed to Bowlby) to explain attachment security: The safety of an army in the field depends both on its defense against attack and on maintaining a line of communications with its base. Should the field commander judge that retreat is the best tactic, it is essential the base be available to him, that he not be cut off from it, and that the commander in charge of the base be trusted to maintain the base and the support implicit it. By analogy, the young child may be afraid of the threat implicit in the clues to danger he perceives in a situa- tion, but he may also be afraid if he doubts the accessibility of his "base" — his attachment figure. If the infant lacks this confidence, then the attachment is de- scribed as insecure. Two types of insecurity are distinguished. The first type is called "avoidant" and is characterized by an in- fant showing limited expression of attachment needs (i.e., they rarely seek comfort and protection from their caregiver). These infants have learned to avoid their caregiver and "hold in" their feelings of distress, and they often shift their attention to play with objects. The second type of insecurity is called "ambivalent" or "resistant" and is characterized by exaggerated expression of attachment needs. These infants have learned that responses to their demands for protection are inconsistent: sometimes they receive a comforting response, sometimes not. As a result, they are preoccupied with getting and keeping their caregiver's atten- tion. One implication of these differences is that patterns of at- tachment are linked to different styles of emotional expression. How could this come about? Consider how patterns of attachment are thought to develop. An infant learns about a caregiver's protective behaviour through repeated daily experiences. Protective behaviour has two com- ponents: the first is proactive and includes things parents or other caregivers do to eliminate hazards (e.g. covering electrical out- lets) and remove dangers (e.g. moving breakable objects out of reach; consulting a physician if the infant seems ill). Unless a caregiver is grossly negligent in this respect, these behaviours are not likely to be noticed by the infant and therefore probably have little psychological impact on development. The second aspect of protective behaviour is responsive; that is, concerned with what the caregiver does when the infant's be- haviour suggests pain, illness or emotional upset. These are oc- casions when the infant is likely to be experiencing emotional discomfort. The caregiver's response at these times provides feed- back to the infant about his or her emotions and how they are expressed. Things that are emotionally upsetting to infants may not be objectively dangerous from the adult's point of view. For example, when a close friend of the family wants to play with the baby, the parents "know" that there is no danger involved. How- ever, if this person is unfamiliar to the baby, then the baby may very well be fearful. The parent's response to the baby's expressed fear depends upon the adult's ability and willingness to take the baby's point of view. This is a domain in which adults vary con- siderably. As a result, what infants learn about the effects of their emotional expressions differs. It has been suggested that each of the three main patterns of infant attachment (secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resist- ant) is associated with a specific pattern of adult responses to emotion signals, particularly those of distress. We conducted two studies to test this idea. In the first (Goldberg, MacKay-Soroka & Rochester, 1994), we observed mothers' responses to emotion expressions of secure, avoidant and resistant 12-month-olds in the strange situation (a structured procedure for assessing at- tachment patterns.) We found that mothers of secure infants re- sponded to infant emotions (both positive and negative) a greater proportion of the time than did mothers in the other groups. Mothers of avoidant infants were least responsive and particu- larly ignored their child's negative emotions; mothers of resistant infants were moderately responsive but tended to ignore positive emotions. The same pattern was observed in their comments: mothers of secure infants made verbal comments about 50% of the time compared to 20% for mothers in the other groups. In the avoidant group there were no comments regarding negative emotions and in the resistant group, no comments regarding positive emotions. Mothers of secure infants also expanded their comments more than the other mothers did. For example, in addition to labeling the emotion, they often gave a reason for it (e.g. "you missed me," "you like that toy"). We also found that mothers of avoidant infants engaged in comforting and distract- ing behaviour when their infants did not appear to require it; that is, when they were not visibly distressed. These data suggested that infants in each of the three attach- ment groups were receiving different messages about emotions from their mothers' behaviour. The message to secure infants was that all emotions (positive or negative) are worthy of atten-
Article
The first section, "Overview of Attachment Theory," provides an updated primer on the theory. The second section of the volume, "Biological Perspectives," stems from J. Bowlby's reliance on ethology and primate research in the creation of attachment theory. The third section of the volume, "Attachment in Infancy and Childhood," contains 3 chapters that provide an overview of empirical research on patterns of attachment in infancy and childhood. The fourth section, "Attachment in Adolescence and Adulthood," contains chapters growing out of Bowlby's early contention that attachment characterizes humans "from the cradle to the grave." The fifth section of the volume, "Clinical Applications of Attachment Theory and Research," contains chapters that reflect the strong roots of attachment theory in clinical psychology and psychiatry, and the contributions that the theory and associated research can now make to clinical work. The final section of the volume,"Emerging Topics and Perspectives," provides a sampling of the wide array of areas into which attachment theory and research are being extended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
the aim of this chapter is to present our recent discovery of a new, insecure-disorganized/disoriented category of infant-parent attachment / our discovery of this attachment category is based upon our study of infant response to the Ainsworth strange situation procedure, a brief, structured observation of the infant's response to separation from and reunion with the parent in the laboratory setting individual differences in infant response to this situation presently permit placement of infants in one of three major "attachment classifications," that is, as secure (group B), insecure-avoidant (group A), or insecure-ambivalent (group C) with respect to the parent with whom the infant is observed our chapter begins with a review of previous studies reporting difficulties in "forcing" each infant in a given sample into one of the three major categories (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Describes methods for determining sidedness and eye dominance in infants under 12 wk. of age, in 2-5 yr. olds, and in Ss over 5 yr. of age. The effects of imitation on developing left or right handedness is discussed. Research is noted which indicates the deleterious effects of crossed dominance. It is suggested that those children and adults who are experiencing ill effects due to crossed dominance should be encouraged to change their handedness. Methods for changing handedness are discussed. The beneficial aspects of a club which was developed for left handed students are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Social workers need a framework for understanding and helping children and families which takes into account the inner world of the self and the outer world of the environment, both in terms of relationships and in terms of practicalities such as housing. It is the capacity of social workers to be aware of and integrate in their practice these different areas of concern which defines the distinctive nature of their professional identity. This paper argues that in order to address both inner and outer worlds, social workers need to use relationship-based practice at all stages of their professional involvement with families. It considers what this psychosocial approach means in relation to individual case examples, where the assessment of need and the offering of help can only be achieved in the context of a relationship. At a time when social work is being defined in terms of case management and service provision, it is necessary to reflect on traditional social work skills and values in order to defend what the professional social worker offers as a service in herself.
Article
Based on an examination of the research literature, this paper contrasts six variables connected with the outcome of adoption and long-term fostering. It provides some answers to the question often being asked by policy makers and family placement workers, as well as judges, about the relative merits and limitations of these two forms of substitute parenting for children who cannot return to live with their birth families. Because of the type of child currently adopted or fostered, breakdown rates by themselves are increasingly an unreliable outcome measure. The main defining difference found between these two forms of substitute parenting appears to be the higher levels of emotional security, sense of belonging and general well-being expressed by those growing up as adopted compared with those fostered long term. However, for reasons outlined in the paper, long-term fostering still has a definite place for a range of children who require long-term plans.
Article
ABSTRACT Long-term foster care has been a much neglected area of social work practice and research. Yet there are obvious challenges that need to be understood when building a family for life in foster care. Is it possible for foster families, where there are no biological or legal ties between carers and children, to provide care, concern and family membership not only through childhood but also into adult life? The study on which this paper is based set out to explore that question by investigating the experiences of 40 adults, aged 18–30, who grew up in foster families. Qualitative interviews were conducted, transcribed and analysed. Theoretical frameworks from attachment and resilience were brought together with concepts such as ‘belonging’ and ‘family membership’ to make sense of the narratives provided. An integrated and dynamic psychosocial model of long-term foster care was developed, which emphasizes the significance of a secure base and has some important implications for practice.
Article
Resilience is a term used to describe relative resistance to psychosocial risk experiences. There is abundant evidence that there is enormous variation in children's responses to such experiences but research to determine the processes underlying the variations needs to take account of several crucial methodological issues. The findings emphasize that multiple risk and protective factors are involved; that children vary in their vulnerability to psychosocial stress and adversity as a result of both genetic and environmental influences; that family-wide experiences tend to impinge on individual children in quite different ways; that the reduction of negative, and increase of positive, chain reactions influences the extent to which the effects of adversity persist over time; that new experiences which open up opportunities can provide beneficial ‘turning- point’ effects; that although positive experiences in themselves do not exert much of a protective effect, they can be helpful if they serve to neutralize some risk factors; and that the cognitive and affective processing of experiences is likely to influence whether or not resilience develops. The implications of these findings for family therapy are considered in terms of the need for therapists to look carefully at the ways in which different risk factors interact; to assess and take account of individual differences in susceptibility; to consider the extent to which risk factors impinge on the individual and, in that connection, to note the importance of patterns of social interaction outside as well as inside the family; to appreciate the role of both the peer group and individual characteristics in the development of negative and positive chain reactions; and to pay attention to the ways in which individuals process their experiences.
Article
Attachment theory provides a rich theoretical framework for research and intervention in child abuse. This paper examines the central role of internal working models in the development of child-parent relationships. Mental representations of child attachment (in infancy and middle childhood), adult attachment and parental caregiving are discussed in light of the adaptational deficits that researchers have found to be associated with attachment insecurity. A reconceptualization of the link between insecurity and child abuse is described, highlighting disorganized attachment. Implications for child abuse intervention are discussed.
Article
A novel behavioural screening questionnaire, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), was administered along with Rutter questionnaires to parents and teachers of 403 children drawn from dental and psychiatric clinics. Scores derived from the SDQ and Rutter questionnaires were highly correlated; parent-teacher correlations for the two sets of measures were comparable or favoured the SDQ. The two sets of measures did not differ in their ability to discriminate between psychiatric and dental clinic attenders. These preliminary findings suggest that the SDQ functions as well as the Rutter questionnaires while offering the following additional advantages: a focus on strengths as well as difficulties; better coverage of inattention, peer relationships, and prosocial behaviour; a shorter format; and a single form suitable for both parents and teachers, perhaps thereby increasing parent-teacher correlations.
Growing up in foster care The international perspective of foster care The companion to foster care. Lyme Regis
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