Adoption & Fostering
Abstracts

Spring 2008 - Vol 32 (1)

Editorial
Roger Bullock

Newspoints

Foster carers’ beliefs regarding the causes of foster children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties: a preliminary model
Amy Taylor, Rachel Swann and Fiona Warren

Key words: education, children in care, expectations of excellence

The authors report on a study that aimed to identify foster carers’ beliefs about the causes of foster children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD), with a view to creating a theory to explain how this particular group of people make sense of these problems.  Fourteen foster carers, with either past or present experience of caring for foster children with EBD, volunteered to take part in an interview to discuss their views.  The interviews were transcribed and the data analysed using Grounded Theory methodology (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).  Nine major causal categories emerged from the data and a theoretical model was constructed to help explicate these categories and the links between them.  The results demonstrated that foster carers believed that much of foster children’s difficulties were caused by early experiences of adversity (eg abuse) or inadequate care (eg neglect) prior to being fostered.  However, there seemed to be a sense that these difficulties were exacerbated by subsequent experiences within the care system itself. The clinical implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.

Amy Taylor is an independent clinical psychologist

Rachel Swann is a Clinical Psychologist, Sussex Partnership NHS Trust

Fiona Warren is Lecturer in Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford

Promoting foster carer strengths: suggestions for strengths-based practice
Tim Odell

Key words: foster care, strength-based, resilience, foster carer training and support, attachment, adoption

Sixty-eight per cent of looked after children in the UK are in foster care.  Children in foster care benefit from continuity.  Sometimes, due to worker turnover and workloads, that continuity comes not from a social worker but from a foster carer.  Thus, fostered children can develop significant attachments to their carers who are likely to have a valuable role to play in long-term planning for a child.  A strengths approach to fostering social work places value on the input of carers as experts on a child but the  social work research literature reveals limited information about use of such an approach in supervising foster carers.  This article builds on recent writing and suggests that the strengths perspective could be of value in working with foster carers just as it has been in other settings.  A case study examines the process of moving on for one child and how social workers and carers worked together to take a creative approach for a child with a history of multiple placements.  This case study illustrates elements of a strengths-based approach.  Suggestions for further application of such a model with foster carers are made, and areas for further practice research identified.

Tim Odell is a senior supervising social worker, London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham

The experience of adoption (2): association between communicative openness and self-esteem in adoption
Celia Beckett, Jenny Castle, Christine Groothues, Amanda Hawkins, Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Emma Colvert, Jana  Kreppner, Suzanne Stevens and Michael Rutter 

Key words: adoption, openness, self-esteem, adopted siblings, Romania

A study of the views of two groups of 11-year-old adopted children (one adopted as babies within the UK, n = 47, the other adopted from Romania, aged between two and 43 months,
n = 133) indicates that parents underestimate the difficulty that their children have in talking about adoption. Children who found this harder experienced lower self-esteem at age 11 and were also more likely to feel different from their adoptive families, and both these factors were related to the individual child's level of behavioural or cognitive difficulties. Children in the Romanian sample who had another adopted sibling found it easier to talk about their adoption. In summary, the ease with which children can talk about adoption does appear to be associated with higher self-esteem and the individual child’s difficulties, as well as family composition.  This article follows ‘The experience of adoption (1)’ (Hawkins et al, 2007), which explored intercountry and domestic adoption from the child’s point of view.

The authors are researchers at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London

The relationship between institutional care and the international adoption of children in Europe
Shihning Chou and Kevin Browne

Key words: international adoption, Europe, Romania

The study reported here explored the link between institutional care for young children and international adoption, using a survey of 33 European countries. Official figures were available from 25 countries on the proportions of national versus international adoption within their own countries, together with the number of children under three in institutional care. Results indicate an association between international adoption (both incoming and outgoing) and a high number of young children in institutional care. The evidence suggests that, rather than reduce the number of children in institutions, international adoption may contribute to the continuation of this harmful practice. A child rights based approach to providing alternative care for children separated from their parents is proposed.

Shihning Chou is a Research Associate, School of Psychology, University of Liverpool

Kevin Browne is Professor in Forensic and Child Psychology,
School of Psychology, University of Liverpool

The use of attachment theory in adoption and fostering
Jim Walker

Key words: attachment theory, adoption and fostering, attachment patterns, matching, selection.

Walker explores the relevance of attachment theory to fostering and adoption. He begins by focusing on three important qualities for substitute carers: the ability to manage a wide range of feelings, both in oneself and in others; the resolution of any past losses and traumas; and the acquisition of reflective function. Emphasis is then paid to gaining an understanding of the attachment patterns of both children and potential substitute carers. Current ideas from attachment theory can help to inform both the selection of substitute carers and the needs and vulnerabilities of looked after children. Ways of matching the child with the carers are discussed, including an analysis of particular areas of vulnerability. Further discussion highlights some of the dilemmas which these ideas might create for current social work practice.

Jim Walker is an independent social worker and psychoanalytic psychotherapist     

Adoption, resilience and the importance of stories: the making of a film about teenage adoptees
Helen Fitzhardinge

Key words: adoption, adolescence, narrative, attachment, resilience

Adolescence is a critical time for adoptees because it highlights themes of identity, belonging and attachment. The Post Adoption Resource Centre in Sydney, Australia, ran a group for  teenage adoptees in which they created a film about being adopted.  The group process assisted participants to explore and enrich their narratives of adoption in the company of their peers. To tell a coherent story of one’s life is developmentally important and closely tied with identity formation, attachment and resilience.  Fitzhardinge presents key themes that arose from the film project and explains why narratives are important in adoption.

Helen Fitzhardinge is a psychologist and family therapist who, at the time of writing, worked at the Post Adoption Resource Centre, a service of the Benevolent Society in Sydney, Australia

Parent to parent mentoring:  Oxfordshire’s pioneering buddy scheme for adopters
Liz Gilkes and Louise Capstick

Key words: parent mentoring, parenting skills, peer support, behaviour management,
adoption support

Parent mentoring schemes have been found to be successful in providing peer support for families with young children in times of need. Parent mentors can often be a more acceptable form of help to fellow parents than professionals. As a response to a request from local adoptive parents and following the establishment of a parenting skills training programme for  all its adopters, Oxfordshire County Council, in partnership with Parentline Plus, have pioneered a parent mentoring scheme that has been tailor-made  for adopters and uses trained adoptive parents as ‘buddies’ to newer adopters. The authors report on how the scheme was set up and run as a partnership between an adoption agency and a local service provider. The buddy scheme was evaluated by means of a questionnaire and was found to be effective in providing the type of support requested by new adopters. It has now become an established part of the County’s Adoption Support Services and is highly valued by those who use it.

Liz Gilkes is Adoption Adviser, Oxfordshire County Council, Children, Young People and Families

Louise Capstick is Senior Parent Support Co-ordinator, Parentline Plus, Oxford

Legal notes: England and Wales
Deborah Cullen

Legal notes: Scotland
Alexandra Plumtree

Legal notes: Northern Ireland
Kerry O’Halloran

Health notes: intercountry adoption in Northern Ireland
Dr Kusum Sharmar

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