Abstracts

These abstracts are selected by Miranda Davies, Managing Editor of Adoption & Fostering. Although care is always taken to be as exact as possible, the editors cannot guarantee the accuracy of material received from outside sources.

Adoption

MEAKINGS Sarah, COFFEY Amanda and SHELTON Katherine H

The influence of adoption on sibling relationships: experience and support needs of newly formed adopted families.

British Journal of Social Work 47(6), 2017, pp. 1781–1799.

This article explores the ways in which sibling relationships, in their various forms, are affected by adoption. The case-file records of 374 children recently placed for adoption in Wales were reviewed. Questionnaires were completed by 96 adoptive parents with whom a sample of the children were placed, and a sub-sample of 40 adoptive parents were interviewed. Most children placed for adoption together with a sibling carried a shared history of maltreatment. Many had complex, often conflictual relationships. Nevertheless, birth siblings in the adoptive home also provided support and comfort for children. New sibling relationships, created by placing children into families with existing children, carried their own set of advantages and complications. Some children placed apart from birth siblings had plans for contact that had not yet materialised. While adoptive parents were often determined to help strengthen sibling bonds created and affected by adoption, this commitment was not always championed through social work intervention. The implications for social work practice in adoption are considered and a family systems framework is proposed as a way of helping to understand sibling dynamics in adoptive families.

WOOD Kate

Families beyond boundaries: Conceptualising kinship in gay and lesbian adoption and fostering

Child & Family Social Work 23(2), 2018, pp. 155–162.

This article discusses key findings taken from a qualitative study conducted with gay and lesbian adopters and foster carers in England and Wales. The study examined the experiences of 24 self-identified lesbians and gay men, who had been involved in adoption or fostering processes since the introduction of the Adoption and Children Act, 2002. It explores why participants chose to adopt or foster and their approach to relationships generated through these routes. Findings indicate that gay and lesbian applicants troubled dominant conceptualisations of family and kinship and revealed both heteronormative and nuclear constructions of parenting within adoption and fostering social work. In contrast, participants often demonstrated a reflexive and creative approach to caring for looked after children. The author therefore considers how professionals can recognise nuanced or complex relationships, situated beyond traditional frameworks, through drawing upon wider concepts within sociological literature.

Fostering

GOEMANS Anouk, van GEEL Mitch, WILDERJANS Jan F, et al.

Predictors of school engagement in foster children: a longitudinal study

Children & Youth Services Review 88, 2018, pp. 33–44.

Children in foster care are often characterised by low academic outcomes which negatively impact their later lives. School engagement may be a key element to promote their academic and educational outcomes. However, little is known about the development of school engagement in foster children and longitudinal studies are lacking. This article reports the findings of a three-wave longitudinal study examining the development of school engagement and analysing which factors were predictive of school engagement in a sample of 363 Dutch foster children (age range 5–18 years, 46.6% girls). Multilevel analyses showed that characteristics related to demographics, school functioning, foster children and foster families predicted levels of school engagement of children in foster care. Foster children's behavioural functioning and foster parents’ positive parenting appeared to be characteristics important to consider in screening and interventions. Based on the findings it is suggested that teachers and foster care professionals should collaborate to ensure that school engagement and consequently school functioning becomes part of foster children’s personal development plans.

LEE Yookyong, FAGAN JS and ICARD Larry D

Fathers’ involvement in the lives of children in foster care

Child & Family Social Work 23(2), 2018, pp. 146–154.

This study used the data from 64 non-residential fathers who had their children placed in foster care in order to describe their characteristics. The survey included questions about demographic background and personal challenges, the father’s involvement with his child in foster care, his relationship with the mother, barriers to his involvement, and the relationship with child welfare agencies and workers. The average age of participants was about 39 years and the majority of them were African American. Around 70% of the fathers reported low levels of education. Almost 69% reported frequent face-to-face contact with their children. On average, the participants were arrested 2.6 times, ranging from 0 to 34. Further research is needed to learn more about these fathers, develop programmes to help them become a viable source for permanency options and become more involved in their children’s lives.

RAINERI Maria Luisa, CALCATERRA Valentina and FOLGHERAITER Fabio

‘We are caregivers, too’: foster siblings’ difficulties, strengths and need for support

Child & Family Social Work, published online, 26 March 2018, doi: 10.1111/cfs.12453.

Foster care is practised and studied in many parts of the world but little attention is paid to foster parents’ birth children, despite their right to participate in a process that concerns their lives as well as the role they play in foster care. Drawing on qualitative data collected from 15 foster siblings and 14 foster parents, this article presents birth children’s experiences with the beginning of foster care, their perceptions of the positive and negative aspects of living with a foster child and their suggestions for foster parents, foster children and professionals. The data reveal that birth children feel engaged in a caregiver role for which they need guidance. However, social workers and other professionals do not appear to fully recognise this. Implications for practice are discussed.

Other

HAKANSSÖN Ulrika, SÖDERSTRÖM Kerstin, WATTEN Reidulf, et al.

Parental reflective functioning and executive functioning in mothers with substance use disorder

Attachment & Human Development 20(2), 2018, pp. 181–207.

Having a substance use disorder may adversely affect caregiving capacities. Reflective functioning (RF) and executive functioning (EF) are both important capacities for sensitive parenting and are often impaired in a substance use disorder. Only a few studies have explored the possible association between the two phenomena. In this study, a neuropsychological test battery was used to assess EF, and the Parent Development Interview to assess RF in a sample of mothers with a substance use disorder (N = 43). Although parental RF (PRF) was associated with EF, when controlled for intelligence (IQ) and mental health, there was no significant association between EF and PRF. Mental health, however, showed a significant negative association with PRF. Splitting the group into two, based on PRF level, mothers with a negative to low PRF exhibited more severe difficulties in substance use disorder-related aspects, as well as in several EF components, compared to mothers with an adequate to high PRF, highlighting the association between EF and PRF. The results from this study contribute to enhance our understanding of the dynamics underlying vulnerability in PRF that mothers with small children may experience. The study suggests EF to be a prerequisite for adequate PRF and for interventions to be customised accordingly regarding parents with a substance use disorder.

PAULSEN Veronika and THOMAS Nigel

The transition to adulthood from care as a struggle for recognition

Child & Family Social Work 23(2), 2018, pp. 163–170.

This article explores young people’s experiences in the transition to adulthood from child welfare services and how Honneth’s theory of recognition can be useful as an analytical tool to help us understand these experiences. The underpinning empirical research consisted of interviews and focus groups with 43 adolescents who had been in contact with Norwegian child welfare services. Three themes emerged as particularly important: having good relationships to caring adults; being listened to and able to influence their own lives; and receiving support and encouragement. The research shows how young people’s difficulties in leaving care can be understood as experiences of misrecognition and points to some ways in which these can be overcome.

SMITH Roger

Reconsidering value perspectives in child welfare

British Journal of Social Work 48(3), 2018, pp. 616–632.

This article offers a conceptually informed review of current trends in child welfare policy, drawing on the ‘value perspectives’ typology originally formulated by Fox Harding. The article introduces the typology and provides examples of its previous application. It goes on to consider the relationship between alternative value positions and the potential conflicts associated with these, before moving on to consider contemporary issues in children’s policy and practice. Recent trends towards an increasing emphasis on adoption and, in parallel, a greater reliance on authoritarian measures to protect children and promote responsible parenting are discussed, as are the relative weakening of policy commitments to the promotion of children’s rights or investment in services to provide support to families. These developments seen in combination can thus be viewed as representing a systemic shift away from welfare and rights-based approaches in child welfare to those which rely on measures grounded in the authoritative exercise of state power, from above. This, the article concludes, can be associated with a progressive degradation of the principles of partnership and collaboration which are viewed as desirable by many of those directly engaged in working with children and families.

WALSH Julie, WHITE Sue, MORRIS Kate and DOHERTY Paula

How do you solve a problem like Maria? Family complexity and institutional complications in UK social work

European Journal of Social Work, published online, 4 May 2018, doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2018.1461068.

This article draws on UK data from an international, comparative project involving eight countries. The study examined how social workers’ conceptions and definitions of family impact on the way they engage with complex families, and how social policies that frame social work contexts impact on the way social workers engage with families. Focus groups were held in which social workers from four service areas (child welfare, addictions, mental health and migration) were asked to discuss a case vignette. Several factors were embedded in the vignette to represent a realistic situation that a social worker might come across in their day-to-day work. Social workers clearly identified the complexity of the family’s situation in terms of the range of issues diagnosed and candidate ‘causes’. However, typical first responses were institutional, looking for triggers that would signify certainty about their or other agencies’ involvement. This resulted in a complicated story, through which the family was disaggregated into individual problem-service categories. The authors argue that understanding these processes and their consequences is critical for exploring the ways in which we might develop alternative, supportive professional responses with families with complex needs. The article also demonstrates how organisational systems manifest themselves in everyday reasoning.