The influence of foster parent investment on children's representations of self and attachment figures

The Placement of Children in Need of Out-of-Home Care: Forms of Care and Differences in Attachment Security and Behavioral Problems in the Italian Context

The current paper investigated differences in secure attachment levels and behavioral problems among four groups of children in out-of-home care in Italy: closed adoption (child and birth parents not in contact following adoption), open adoption (child and birth parents still in contact after placement), foster care (child living temporarily with relatives or unrelated foster parents) and institutional care (child in residential care for large groups of children). One hundred and thirty children aged 10-19 were included in this study. The Attachment Interview for Childhood and Adolescence and the Achenbach Youth Self-Report were employed to measure participants' secure attachment levels and behavioral problems. Both a multivariate analysis of covariance and measured variable path analysis were performed. Age, gender and time elapsed between the request for child protection and placement on out-of-home care were used as covariates. The results showed that adolescents in closed adoption had higher secure attachment scores than those in foster care and institutional care, while adolescents in open adoption scored significantly higher on problem behaviors than those in the other out-of-home care groups. Findings were discussed in terms of limitations and implications for future research.

Foster Care, Kinship Care, and the Transition to Adulthood: Do Child Welfare System Processes Explain Differences in Outcomes?

Despite longstanding policy preferences favoring kinship care placements over non-relative family foster care placements, research findings on the benefits of kinship care vary by measurement, assessed outcome, follow-up period, and other study design elements. We examined early adulthood outcomes-incarceration and teen parenthood-among WI youth who entered foster care in early-to-middle childhood (ages 5-10). Results suggest that initial placement in kin or nonrelative kinship care was not significantly related to imprisonment or teenage parenthood directly; however, first placement in kinship care is associated with fewer moves, longer duration in care, and a higher probability of a new maltreatment investigation, which in turn is related to long-term outcomes. Further, a new maltreatment investigation was an important mediator and was significantly associated with a higher probability of incarceration and teenage parenthood. This study provides mechanisms on the ways in which first placement setting influences incarceration and teenage parenthood. Findings provide important policy and practice implications on how children's experiences in foster care, based on their initial placement type, can lead to maladaptive outcomes.

COVID-19-Related Stress and Resilience Resources: A Comparison Between Adoptive and non-Adoptive Mothers

Despite an increasing interest in how adoptive parents deal with situations appraised as stressful, there is a lack of research regarding adoptive parents' adjustment to the challenges posed by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The current study explores similarities and differences between adoptive and non-adoptive mothers in terms of risks (i.e., COVID-19-related stress) and individual (i.e., sense of coherence [SOC]), couple (i.e., partner's support), parent-child (i.e., parent-child relationship satisfaction), and social (i.e., friends' support) resources in the face of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the present study was aimed at predicting which variables discriminate more effectively between the two groups. Participants were 445 Italian mothers (40.9% adoptive mothers), who were asked to fill in an anonymous online survey between May 2021 and October 2021. Results showed that adoptive and non-adoptive mothers reported different resilience resources to face the stressors posed by the health emergency. Specifically, COVID-19 traumatic stress symptoms, parent-child relationship satisfaction, and SOC were found to contribute most in discriminating between the two groups. Findings are discussed in relation to future research developments and practical implications.

Foster Parents' Parenting and the Social-Emotional Development and Adaptive Functioning of Children in Foster Care: A PRISMA-Guided Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

Children in foster care (CFC) are at increased risk for negative developmental outcomes. Given the potential influence of foster parents' parenting on the development of CFC, this literature review and meta-analysis provide an initial overview of how parenting factors in foster families relate to CFC's developmental outcomes. We aimed to explore (1) whether foster parents' parenting conceptualizations are related differently to various CFC developmental outcome variables and (2) how characteristics of foster parents and CFC moderate these associations. Following the recommendations of the PRISMA statement, we searched four databases in 2017 (with an update in May 2020). Forty-three primary studies were coded manually. The interrater agreement was 92.1%. Parenting variables were specified as parenting behavior, style, and goals and were distinguished further into functional and dysfunctional parenting. CFC development was divided into adaptive (including cognitive) development and maladaptive development. Meta-analyses could be performed for foster parenting behavior and developmental outcomes, as well as for functional parenting goals and maladaptive socioemotional outcomes in CFC. Associations between functional parenting behavior and adaptive child development were positive and negative for maladaptive child development, respectively. For dysfunctional, parenting effects were in the opposite direction. All effects were small to moderate. Similar results were found descriptively in the associations of parenting style and child developmental outcomes. We found similar effect sizes and directions of the associations between parenting behavior in foster families and the child's developmental outcomes as those previously reported for biological families. These findings provide strong support for the significant role of parenting in foster families regarding children's development in foster care.

Les parents funambules : entre désir d’enfant et désir d’accueil, un équilibre à négocier dans la famille d’accueil régulière au Québec

Cadre de la recherche : Chaque année au Québec, des milliers d’enfants sont pris en charge par la protection de la jeunesse suite à la compromission de leur sécurité ou de leur développement. Parmi les sujets qui ont choisi de les accueillir, les familles d’accueil régulières reçoivent les enfants pour une durée de temps variable et s’exposent ainsi à leur départ. Ils ne souhaitent pas d’emblée les adopter ou ne peuvent pas accéder à une reconnaissance légale d’un statut parental.

Objectifs : Cette recherche qualitative inductive vise à explorer les aspects affectifs et psychiques du vécu et de l’expérience des parents d’accueil.

Méthodologie : Des entretiens non directifs ont été effectués auprès de dix parents de familles d’accueil régulières québécoises. Chaque participant a été rencontré à deux reprises. Une analyse par catégories conceptualisantes a été appliquée à l’ensemble des transcriptions d’entretien. L’articulation des catégories est présentée dans un modèle intégrateur.

Résultats : Les participants présentent des trajectoires de vie dans lesquelles prédomine le don de soi. Ils se trouvent dans une position complexe de parent et de non-parent face aux enfants qu’ils accueillent. De plus, ils soulignent la difficulté d’établir un lien de proximité avec des enfants qui peuvent partir à tout moment. Différents défis relatifs à la relation avec l’institution sont également soulevés. Les résultats sont discutés à partir de la catégorie intégratrice des parents funambules, ainsi que du concept de désir d’accueil.

Conclusions : Les résultats mettent à jour des caractéristiques ayant mené des couples vers l’accueil d’enfants en difficulté et décrivent la complexité de la position de parent d’accueil. Ils soulèvent également une certaine précarité inhérente à cette position qui résulte notamment d’une oscillation entre désir d’accueil et désir d’enfant, d’où l’appellation de parent funambule.

Contributions : La présente étude permet de contribuer aux connaissances concernant les aspects affectifs et psychiques de l’expérience des parents d’accueil québécois. Elle soulève la nécessité de penser un accompagnement spécifique à ces enjeux.

Adult children of parents with mental illness: parenting journeys

BACKGROUND

Individuals who have lived with childhood parental mental illness are at increased risk of developing mental health concerns. Yet there is limited knowledge about how a person's childhood experiences of parental mental illness may influence their subsequent parenting roles.

METHODS

This narrative study generated parenting narratives of adult children who had lived with childhood parental mental illness. Interviewees included 10 women and three men. Inductive thematic analysis was used to establish themes and sub-themes from the narratives.

RESULTS

The theme of parenting journeys with sub-themes of: 'adult children living with parenting worries' and 'adult children seeking emotional connectivity with their children and others' are presented.

CONCLUSIONS

Parenting anxiety may be a common experience shared by all parents. However, adult children's worries in relation to their child/ren developing mental illness may be associated with their own experiences of childhood parental mental illness. All health professionals have a pinnacle role in supporting families to build resilience and harness positive experiences within familial relationships to recognise and mitigate parenting anxiety.

Mentoring Relationship Quality and Maltreated Children's Coping

Coping strategies are believed to protect against the harmful effects of maltreatment on children's psychosocial outcomes. Caregivers are thought to be critical in helping children develop adaptive coping strategies, yet many maltreated children have poor and/or insecure relationships with their parents. A quality relationship with a caring, non-parental adult (e.g., a mentor), however, may be one strategy to promote healthy coping among maltreated children. Children (N = 154) in this study participated in a mentoring and skill-based program for maltreated preadolescents placed in foster care. Hierarchical regression was used to assess the association between children's reports of their relationship with their mentor at the end of the intervention and four coping strategies (i.e., Active, Support-seeking, Avoidance, and Distraction) 6 months following the intervention, while accounting for baseline coping strategies and other demographic factors. Above and beyond the covariates, better mentoring relationship quality was associated with children's greater use of Active and Distraction coping 6-month post-intervention. Mentoring relationship quality was not significantly associated with children's Avoidance or Support-seeking coping. The findings suggest that mentoring programs may be a fruitful approach to improving vulnerable children's coping skills. Healthy coping is hypothesized to protect against the harmful effects of maltreatment and to promote resilience in the face of multiple stressors (Banyard & Williams, ; Boxer & Sloan-Power, 2013; Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2009). It remains unclear, however, how best to promote positive coping among maltreated children, who are disproportionately exposed to numerous adverse childhood experiences (Raviv, Taussig, Culhane & Garrido, 2010). Theories of coping emphasize the importance of coping socialization through quality parent-child relationships (Kliewer et al., 2006; Skinner & Wellborn, ). Unfortunately, many maltreated children are exposed to poor quality and/or inadequate caregiving (Baer & Martinez, 2006), which may place them at risk for engaging in unhealthy or inappropriate forms of coping. It is reasonable to expect that positive relationships with other non-parental adults (e.g., mentors) would affect coping behaviors given the positive impact that quality relationships have on a myriad of emotional and behavioral child outcomes (DuBois, Portillo, Rhodes, Silverthorn & Valentine, 2011; Keller & Pryce, 2012; Thomson & Zand, ). Because children in foster care often transition in and out of schools and home environments, a quality relationship with a mentor (a consistent presence in the child's life) may be well suited to promote healthy coping strategies.

Exploring children's perspectives of engagement with their carers using factor analysis

Positive engagement between a child and carer in out-of-home care is understood to have long-term benefits for children who have experienced abuse or neglect. This study analysed data from the 'Views of Children and Young People in Foster Care 2009' survey of 937 children in out-of-home care in Queensland, Australia, to identify factors that supported or hindered engagement between a child and carer. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and structural regression were used. Findings suggest that children's engagement with their carer is influenced by a range of internal and external factors including child characteristics, the care experience, contact with biological parents, and placement trajectory. Child engagement is important because it is central to positive outcomes such as placement stability in out-of-home care. Implications for policy and practice include the need for a structural response that supports building and maintaining positive child-carer relationships.

Review

Attachment theorists have described the parent–child attachment relationship as a foundation for the emergence and development of children’s capacity for emotion regulation and coping with stress. The purpose of this review was to summarize the existing research addressing this issue. We identified 23 studies that employed validated assessments of attachment, which were not based on self-report questionnaires, and separated the summary into findings for toddlers/preschool, children, and adolescents. Although most associations were weak and only a minority of the multiple possible associations tested was supported in each study, all studies (but one) reported at least one significant association between attachment and emotion regulation or coping. The evidence pointed to the regulatory and coping problems of toddlers showing signs of ambivalent attachment or the benefits of secure (relative to insecure) attachment for toddlers, children, and adolescents. Toddlers who showed signs of avoidant attachment relied more on self-related regulation (or less social-oriented regulation and coping), but it was not clear whether these responses were maladaptive. There was little information available regarding associations of ambivalent attachment with school-age children’s or adolescents’ emotion regulation. There were also few studies that assessed disorganized attachment.

Behavior problems of children in foster care: Associations with foster mothers' representations, commitment, and the quality of mother-child interaction

This study investigated different environmental and contextual factors associated with maltreated children's adjustment in foster care. Participants included 83 children (52 boys), ages 1-7 years, and their foster caregivers. Quality of interaction with the foster caregiver was assessed from direct observation of a free-play situation; foster caregiver attachment state of mind and commitment toward the child were assessed using two interviews; disruptive behavior symptoms were reported by foster caregivers. Results showed that quality of interaction between foster caregivers and children were associated with behavior problems, such that higher-quality interactions were related to fewer externalizing and internalizing problems. Foster caregivers' state of mind and commitment were interrelated but not directly associated with behavior problems of foster children. Type of placement moderated the association between foster caregiver commitment and foster child behavior problems. Whereas greater foster caregiver commitment was associated with higher levels of adjustment for children in foster families (kin and non-kin), this was not the case in foster-to-adopt families. Finally, the associations between foster child behavior problems and history of maltreatment and placement related-risk conditions fell below significance after considering child age and quality of interaction with the foster caregiver. Findings underscore the crucial contribution of the foster caregiver-child relationship to fostering child adjustment and, thereby, have important implications for clinical services offered to this population.

"I Want to be There When He Graduates:" Foster Parents Show Higher Levels of Commitment than Group Care Providers

Group care is a frequent placement for adolescents placed in out of home care when their birth parents' care is deemed unsafe. In the present study, we assessed whether foster parents show greater commitment to children than group care providers. Given that group care represents a number of living arrangements, we considered both shift care (where staff work shifts and do not live with the children) and cottage care (where staff live for extended periods of time with the children in a group living context). Commitment was assessed using the This Is My Child Interview (adapted for adolescents). Thirty-one foster parents, 18 shift workers, and 28 cottage care providers were interviewed. As predicted, foster parents showed higher levels of commitment than both shift care workers and cottage care providers, and the associations held when children's externalizing behaviors and the number of children the caregivers had cared for were controlled. The results suggest that foster care promotes greater commitment among caregivers than other out of home placements, and add to other findings that favor foster care as the out of home placement of choice for adolescents.

Helping foster parents understand the foster child's perspective: a relational learning framework for foster care

The behaviour of children in foster care is influenced by a variety of factors including previous experiences of maltreatment and adverse parenting, as well as the impact of separation from birth parents and placement in care. These factors make it difficult for foster parents to accurately interpret the child's behavioural cues, a necessary precursor to sensitive parenting. The relational learning framework introduced in this article, drawing on attachment theory, facilitates the foster parents' access to some features of the child's mental representations, or internal working model, which may be pivotal in understanding the child's behaviour and therefore successfully managing it. Recent studies suggest that parents' ability to understand the child's psychological perspective, or mental state, is related to the child's cognitive and social development. This article presents a method to enhance the foster parents' understanding of the child's psychological perspective. The model is currently being evaluated for use with foster parents, mental health and social work practitioners.

Infants and Toddlers in Foster Care

Young children involved in the child welfare system are susceptible to behavioral and physiological dysregulation. These children need nurturing care to develop organized attachments to caregivers; they need synchronous care to support their physiological and behavioral regulation; and they need stable caregivers who can commit to them, supporting their sense of self and behavioral regulation. Without intervention at the level of the parent and the system, most children involved with the child welfare system are unlikely to have these needs met. We present two models of intervention designed to enhance parents' synchrony and nurturance, and highlight aspects of the system that can enhance the stability and commitment of caregivers.

Maternal psychological absence and toddlers' social-emotional development: interpretations from the perspective of boundary ambiguity theory

The current study tests a novel latent construct reflecting psychological absence and examines its relations with maternal depression, mother-toddler interactions, and toddlers' social-emotional outcomes in a low-income sample (N = 2,632). Structural equation modeling confirmed a psychological absence construct and revealed that psychological absence, measured at the child's 36-month birthday-related assessment, is a significant predictor of children's social-emotional development at 36 months, mediated by mother-child interaction. Results are interpreted within a boundary ambiguity framework.

THIS IS MY BABY: FOSTER PARENTS' FEELINGS OF COMMITMENT AND DISPLAYS OF DELIGHT

This study examined the association between foster parents' commitment to their young foster children and the delight they showed in their interactions with children. Seventy foster parent-child dyads were included as participants. The dyads were videotaped during a play interaction when children were between 9 and 28 months, with delight coded on the basis of foster parents' responses to children. Caregivers were interviewed with the "This Is My Baby" Interview (B. Bates & M. Dozier, 1998), with commitment coded as the extent to which parents expressed interest in enduring relationships with their foster children and the extent to which they thought of them as their own. Regression analyses revealed that commitment was a significant predictor of foster parent delight. Foster parents who were more highly committed to their foster children showed greater delight in their children than did foster parents who were less highly committed. These results suggest an important way in which caregiver commitment is transmitted to foster children.

ERP correlates of attention allocation in mothers processing faces of their children

This study employed visually evoked event-related potential (ERP) methodology to examine temporal patterns of structural and higher-level face processing in birth and foster/adoptive mothers viewing pictures of their children. Fourteen birth mothers and 14 foster/adoptive mothers engaged in a computerized task in which they viewed facial pictures of their own children, and of familiar and unfamiliar children and adults. All mothers, regardless of type, showed ERP patterns suggestive of increased attention allocation to their own children's faces compared to other child and adult faces beginning as early as 100-150 ms after stimulus onset and lasting for several hundred milliseconds. These data are in line with a parallel processing model that posits the involvement of several brain regions in simultaneously encoding the structural features of faces as well as their emotional and personal significance. Additionally, late positive ERP patterns associated with greater allocation of attention predicted mothers' perceptions of the parent-child relationship as positive and influential to their children's psychological development. These findings suggest the potential utility of using ERP components to index maternal processes.

Preschoolers' contribution to their diagnosis of depression and anxiety: uses and limitations of young child self-report of symptoms

BACKGROUND

The assessment of psychopathology in preschool aged children has traditionally relied exclusively on adult informants as children under 6 years-of-age have been widely regarded as developmentally unable to serve as valid reporters of their own mental state. Based on the finding of a valid preschool depressive syndrome, methods to obtain self-report of symptoms of depression and related anxiety directly from the child are now needed.

METHODS

The Berkeley Puppet Interview (BPI), a novel measure of psychopathology designed for the young child informant, was administered to N = 110 preschool study subjects aged 4.0-5.6 who participated in a comprehensive assessment of preschool depression. Parents filled out the Child Behavioral Checklists (CBCL) and the diagnosis was derived using parent report on the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for children, version IV (DISC-IV-YC) at baseline and 6 months later.

RESULTS

Findings suggest that young children may serve as useful reporters of several core and basic symptoms of depression and anxiety based on significant correlations with a variety of parent report measures administered concurrently and 6 months later. However, no significant correlations were found between preschool reports of more complex or abstract symptoms.

CONCLUSION

These findings taken together suggest that the young child can validly self-report on some key aspects of depression and anxiety and that self-report of young children should be sought in these domains. Findings also suggested that these self-reports are limited to the core and basic symptoms of these disorders and that direct age appropriate approaches may not be useful beyond that domain.