Abstracts

Adoption & Fostering abstracts are selected by Miranda Davies in collaboration with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), London. Although care is always taken to be as exact as possible, the editors cannot guarantee the accuracy of material received from outside sources.

Adoption

SELWYN Julie and MEAKINGS Sarah

Adolescent-to-parent violence in adoptive families

British Journal of Social Work 46(5), 2016, pp.1224–1240

Adolescent-to-parent violence (APV) has received little attention in the social work literature, although it is known to be a factor in families whose children are at risk of entry to care. The behaviour patterns that characterise APV include coercive control, domination and intimidation. Crucially, parental behaviours are compromised by fear of violence. This article discusses the unexpected findings from two recent adoption studies of previously looked after children in England and Wales. The studies exposed the prevalence of APV in the lives of families who had experienced an adoption disruption and those who were finding parenting very challenging. Two main APV patterns emerged: early onset (pre-puberty) that escalated during adolescence and late onset that surfaced during puberty and rapidly escalated. The stigma and shame associated with APV delayed help seeking. The response from services was often to blame the adoptive parents and to instigate child protection procedures. There is an urgent need for a greater professional recognition of APV and for interventions to be evaluated with children who have been maltreated and show symptoms of trauma.

FARMER Elaine and DANCE Cherilyn

Family finding and matching in adoption: what helps to make a good match?

British Journal of Social Work 46(4), 2016, pp. 974–992

This study compared the effectiveness and outcomes of different family-finding methods in adoption in England, over-selecting harder to place children. The case files of 149 children with adoption recommendations in 10 local authorities were reviewed and a sub-sample of 67 cases were followed in real time, through interviews with professionals and families until six months after adoptive placement. Most matches were of good quality, but 14% were fair and 13% poor, involving serious compromises on matching requirements or adopters' preferences. There were more poor matches when in-house placements were made or children's difficulties were underplayed with new parents and, necessarily, more compromises were made when matching children with significant health or developmental needs. More good quality matches were made when case responsibility was transferred early to the adoption team. Poorer quality matches were related to poorer outcomes six months after adoptive placement. To improve matching, searches for families need to be widened early to avoid delays and to maximise the pool of adopters. Formal processes to track and review the progress of adoptions for children with complex needs (including matching meetings) can help avoid delay and ensure that a group of professionals, rather than an individual professional, makes key decisions.

Fostering

THOMPSON Heather M, WOJCIAK Armeda Stevenson and COOLEY Morgan E

Self-esteem: a mediator between peer relationships and behaviors of adolescents in foster care

Children and Youth Services Review 66, 2016, pp. 109–116

Youth in foster care have been shown to be at risk for a range of negative behaviours. Developmental research has highlighted the important role that peer relationships can play in an adolescent's development. For youth in foster care, peer relationships can also play an important role in both young people’s internal perception of themselves and their enacted behaviours. This study utilised the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing, a national secondary dataset, to analyse the connection between peer relationships for young people in long-term foster care and their report of internalising, externalising and delinquent behaviours (n = 188). Additionally, the self-esteem of adolescents was explored as a potential mediator between peer relationships and these behaviours. Preliminary analyses indicated that peer relationships had a significant association with all three of the identified behaviours: internalising, externalising and delinquent behaviours of young people in foster care. Self-esteem was found to be a significant mediator between peer relationships and adolescents' report of their internalising, externalising and delinquent behaviours. Clinical implications for therapeutic services that focus on the adolescent’s self-image and potential policy implications are discussed.

van HOLEN Frank

Foster care assessment: an exploratory study of the placement assessment process in Flanders and the Netherlands

Child & Family Social Work 21(3), 2016, pp. 358–368

Family foster care placement decision-making has a weak scientific underpinning. The identification of clusters of foster children (groups of foster children with similar characteristics) can help improve decision quality. In this study, the authors investigated if foster children could indeed be clustered, which problems were identified at the time of placement and what might be the influence of placement history. Two clusters of foster children were found: (i) young children with coinciding parental child-rearing incapacity and familial problems, and (ii) older children with child problems. At the time of placement, familial problems were more often identified in younger children with a placement history. These findings stress the importance of approaching foster care assessment as part of a dynamic decision-making process. It is key to finding the most appropriate situation for the child. At the same time, it must be decided how the desired situation can be realised, wherein placement decisions are based on an appraisal of whether or not a foster placement is an appropriate solution. In conjunction with this, it needs to be decided how the parents can be supported towards reunification, or whether or not long-term foster care is the best option for the child, and if so, what conditions need to be met.

Fostering/Education

FORSMAN Hilma, BRÄNNSTRÖM L, VINNERLJUNG B and HJERN A

Does poor school performance cause later psychosocial problems among children in foster care? Evidence from national longitudinal registry data

Child Abuse and Neglect 57, 2016, pp. 61–71

Research has shown that children in foster care are a high-risk group for adverse economic, social and health related outcomes in young adulthood. Children's poor school performance has been identified as a major risk factor for these poor later life outcomes. Aiming to support the design of effective intervention strategies, this study examines the hypothesised causal effect of foster children's poor school performance on subsequent psychosocial problems, here conceptualised as economic hardship, illicit drug use and mental health problems, in young adulthood. Using the potential outcomes approach, longitudinal register data on more than 7500 Swedish foster children born between 1973 and 1978 were analysed by means of doubly robust treatment-effect estimators. The results show that poor school performance has a negative impact on later psychosocial problems net of observed background attributes and potential selection on unobservables, suggesting that the estimated effects allow for causal interpretations. Promotion of school performance may thus be a viable intervention path for policy-makers and practitioners interested in improving foster children's overall life chances.

FRIES Lauren, KLEIN Sacha and BALLANTYNE Molly

Are foster children’s schools of origin always best? School quality in birth vs. foster parent neighbourhoods

Child & Family Social Work 21(3), 2016, pp. 317–327

Research has documented that foster children have high rates of school mobility and it is widely believed that this contributes to their poor educational outcomes. Recent US policies address this by attempting to minimise school transfers for foster children but these policies have largely ignored the issue of school quality. The current study uses descriptive statistics and mixed factor analysis of variance to assess: (i) the quality of schools attended by elementary-aged US foster children living in a large, urban school district (n = 683); (ii) their rates of school mobility; and (iii) differences between the quality of schools located in their birth parent vs. foster placement neighbourhoods. Results indicate that these foster children were attending poor performing schools and had high rates of school transfers. For the sample as a whole and specifically for African-Americans and Hispanics, schools located in placement neighbourhoods were higher performing than schools in birth parent neighbourhoods.

LEE Kyunghee

Head Start's impact on cognitive outcomes for children in foster care

Child Abuse Review 25(2), 2016, pp. 128–141

Head Start is a programme of the US Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. Using the Head Start Impact Study data, this secondary data analysis examines the programme’s impact on cognitive outcomes for children in foster care. Out of 4442 children, 162 children in foster care were selected to examine the following study questions: (i) Do children in foster care who enrol in Head Start have different child and family characteristics than those who do not?; (ii) Do children in foster care who participate in Head Start have higher reading and maths scores at ages five to six?; and (iii) Do child and family characteristics moderate Head Start's impact on reading and maths scores of children in foster care at ages five to six? There was no main Head Start impact on reading and math scores for children in foster care. However, Head Start impact was found for the child's gender and the caregiver's age. Girls who participated obtained higher reading and maths scores than boys. Children cared for by older caregivers had higher maths scores than those cared for by younger caregivers. Baseline variables such as ethnicity, special needs status and cognitive skills prior to Head Start enrolment were directly associated with maths and reading scores at ages five to six.

MOONEY Jennifer, WINTER Karen and CONNOLLY Paul

Effects of a book gifting programme on literacy outcomes for foster children: a randomised controlled trial evaluation of the Letterbox Club in Northern Ireland

Children and Youth Services Review 65, 2016, pp. 1–8

The poor educational outcomes of children in care are a significant concern internationally. While there have been many interventions developed to address this problem, very few of these have been rigorously evaluated. This article presents the findings of a randomised controlled trial that sought to measure the effectiveness of a book gifting programme (the Letterbox Club) that aims to improve literacy skills among children aged 7–11 years in foster care. The programme involves children receiving six parcels of books sent through the post over a six-month period. The trial, which ran between April 2013 and June 2014, involved a sample of 116 children in Northern Ireland (56 randomly allocated to the intervention group and 60 to a waiting list control group). Outcome measures focused on reading skills (reading accuracy, comprehension and rate) and attitudes to reading and school. The trial found no evidence that the book-gifting programme had any effect on any of the outcomes measured. Drawing upon some of the emergent themes from the accompanying qualitative process evaluation that sought to determine foster carer/child attitude towards and engagement with the parcels, it is suggested that one plausible reason for the ineffectiveness of the Letterbox Club, as intimated by carers and children (rather than explicitly explored with them), is the lack of support provided to the carers/children in relation to the packs received. Reflective of an ecological model of children's development, it is recommended that for book-gifting programmes to be effective they need to include a focus on encouraging the direct involvement of foster carers in shared literacy activities with the children using the books that are gifted.

Miscellaneous

JONES Christine

Sibling relationships in adoptive and fostering families: a review of the international research literature

Children & Society 30(4), 2016, pp. 324–334

This article presents a review of the international research literature published since 2005 focusing specifically on sibling relationships in fostering and adoptive families. It presents an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding sibling relationships of fostered and adopted children as well as gaps and limitations. The review concludes that while methodological advances are apparent in this body of work, siblinghood is poorly conceptualised and there has been inadequate attention to the perspectives of children. The article goes on to suggest that one possible source of insight comes from recent work undertaken within social anthropology and sociology, and the application of this theoretical and methodological approach to the study of siblinghood in out-of-home care is considered.

ROSENTHAL James A and HEGAR Rebecca L

Kinship guardianship, adoption, and foster care: outcomes from a U.S. national sample

Journal of Public Child Welfare 10(3), 2016, pp. 237–254

Using data from a national longitudinal survey of children referred to child protective services (NSCAW II), this article compares behavioural, child/caregiver relationship, and school performance outcomes for children residing in kinship and non-kinship settings. Up to three waves of data were gathered for each child. The analysis sample comprises 4202 children and 10,881 observations. Two sets of regressions were completed. One represents family living settings using child-mean centred predictors while the other does so with dummy-coded variables. An advantage of the child-mean centred predictors is that omitted variables that vary between children but that are constant within each child do not introduce bias. The regressions using dummy-coded variables evidenced, on balance, somewhat better outcomes for kinship settings than for non-kinship ones. Good outcomes in these regressions were found for kinship adoption. Results with the child-mean centred regressions were more equivocal, though perhaps still favoured kinship settings. Limitations and policy recommendations conclude the article.