Abstract
Although foster care is generally seen as providing a positive experience for the children and young people for whom it caters, it is rarely conceived of as a place where the children are helped to address their emotional difficulties and modify their often difficult behaviour. Yet research evidence suggests that some foster carers are consistently less likely to have placements which break down, and that foster carers who show particular skills in parenting can make a difference to successful outcomes. The article draws on a large longitudinal study of foster care to argue that it is possible to learn from what these foster carers do in order to develop these skills in others. A model of successful foster care. developed from the main statistical part of the study is first described. Two cases from the qualitative, case-studies component of the research are then analysed to demonstrate a quality of responsive parenting. The model is further developed within the framework of the dynamic of attachment and interest sharing proposed by Heard and Lake (1997), to show how this can be used as a basis for future approaches to working with foster placements.
Highlights
In our original analysis of the foster placement, we explored the case first by describing the key conditions., which we saw as encompassing both central conditions to do with the characteristics of the child and the foster carer; and the conditions to do with the wider context, including support from the foster family, school and other professionals
In the first part of this article we examined findings which suggested that children coming into foster care are likely to have, albeit to varying extents, difficulties relating to attachment, emotional and behavioural disturbance and social problems
It was argued that the failure to bring about much behavioural change, coupled with the limited amount of permanency offered to these children, may in part be a reflection of the low expectations which all concerned have of foster care
Summary
These included measures of child’s characteristics (eg motivation to be in placement, attractiveness/prosocial scores from Goodman’s Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, (Goodman and Scott, 1997)) and three foster carer ratings, a carer parenting score based on the views of social workers, a rejection score based on carer responses relating to their fondness/acceptance of their foster child and a child orientation score, based on an instrument developed by Marjorie Smith at the Thomas Coram Research Unit This essentially counts the number of different things that a parent might do with a child that the child might be expected to like (for example, reading a bed time story, going to a football match). Every and again, we have a sit down and a talk about all the positives that’s happened to James.’
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