Foster Agency Research Articles

Reducing Sibling Conflict in Maltreated Children Placed in Foster Homes

Sibling aggression among maltreated children placed in foster homes is linked to other externalizing problems and placement disruption. The reduction of sibling conflict and aggression may be achieved via a multicomponent ecologically focused intervention for families in the foster care system. The focus of the study is to evaluate the feasibility and short-term effectiveness of a transtheoretical intervention model targeting sibling pairs and their foster parent that integrates family systems, social learning theory, and a conflict mediation perspective. In this pilot study, sibling pairs (N = 22) and their foster parent were randomized into a three-component intervention (n = 13) or a comparison (n = 9) group. Promoting Sibling Bonds (PSB) is an 8-week prevention intervention targeting maltreated sibling pairs ages 5-11years placed together in a foster home. The siblings, parent, and joint components were delivered in a program package at the foster agency by a trained two-clinician team. Average attendance across program components was 73%. Outcomes in four areas were gathered at pre- and postintervention: observed sibling interaction quality (positive and negative) including conflict during play, and foster parent reports of mediation strategies and sibling aggression in the foster home. At postintervention, adjusting for baseline scores and child age, intervention pairs showed higher positive (p < 0.001) and negative (p < 0.05) interaction quality and lower sibling conflict during play (p < 0.01) than comparison pairs. Foster parents in the intervention group reported a higher number of conflict mediation strategies than those in the comparison group (p < 0.001). Foster parents in the intervention group reported lower sibling physical aggression from the older toward the younger child than those in the comparison group (p < 0.05). Data suggest that the PSB intervention is a promising approach to reduce conflict and promote parental mediation, which together may reduce sibling aggression in the foster home.

Agency matters: academic developers’ quests and achievements

The paper provides an analysis of the concepts of agency, compliance, and resistance, drawing on evidence provided in the Belgian, Norwegian, and Polish cases in this Special Issue, as well as the Canadian context. Using the Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework as a lens, it highlights conditions that foster agency, those that may invoke compliance or resistance, and those that lead to fruitful collaboration.

On the Streets/Within the Stadium: Art For and Against the ‘System’ in Oppositional Responses to London 2012

This article examines activist and art activist responses to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It explores the challenges of mounting an effective oppositional response to a Summer Games that had also coincided with austerity legislation that systematically stripped some of the most marginalized citizens in the UK of their rights. It proposes that oppositional responses to London 2012 were split between art activists who disavowed the ‘System’, who saw any engagement with the Olympics as collaboration in the traitorous sense, and tantamount to surrendering their right to free speech; and artists that deliberately placed themselves inside the machinery of the Games with the very aim to express themselves, politically. Building on the work of Shannon Jackson, who advocates for socially engaged artworks that foster agency through ‘systemic relation’, I focus on artists that produced work within the ‘System’ of governmental institutions and local Olympic and Paralympic delivery bodies. This includes former Olympic artist-in-residence Neville Gabie and his group archive exhibit, Unearthed, the M21 live art festival in Much Wenlock, and the performance of protest in the Paralympic opening ceremony. In a time when government departments faced unprecedented cutbacks that cast marginalized citizens in UK society as ‘costly burdens’ I argue that institutional avowal enabled the performance of politically tendentious acts during a ‘once in a lifetime event’.

Using the Adult Attachment Interview to inform foster carer assessment

This study reports on findings from research carried out with Barnardo’s, a voluntary sector (not-for-profit) fostering agency, on its experience of using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to assess foster carers’ attachment style. Despite growing interest in the application of standardised assessment tools to the selection and support of carers, there is currently very little research that focuses on the implementation of these tools and their added value in either an adoption or foster care setting. Research was conducted in two phases. The first phase used qualitative interviews with staff members to explore their experience of using the AAI in the early stages of its implementation. The second phase drew on qualitative interviews with staff, foster carers and fostering panel members to assess current practice 18 months later. The AAI was found to add depth and rigour to the assessment process, provided opportunities for carers to reflect on their past experiences and gave staff and carers a common language to discuss issues relating to attachment. However, the use of the AAI was not without its costs and challenges and required a significant investment of time and resources. The implications for foster care agencies are discussed.

When Do Agencies Comply with Rulemaking Process Requirements?

This Article analyzes when and why administrative agencies avoid rulemaking procedural requirements such as the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice-and-comment process. This Article’s original empirical analysis shows that agencies invoke statutory exemptions to avoid such rulemaking procedures more frequently as the threat of a lawsuit challenging that avoidance declines. In situations with a low threat of suit, agencies have avoided rulemaking procedures for more than 90 percent of rules. Such avoidance falls when the threat of suit increases. But even when litigation ensues, courts do not consistently require agencies to comply with rulemaking procedures. This spotty judicial enforcement, along with significant agency avoidance, casts doubt on the claim that rulemaking procedures have significantly burdened the rulemaking process. At the same time, agency avoidance suggests that rulemaking procedures do less than commonly thought to promote public deliberation in the rulemaking process, foster agency expertise, guard against agency arbitrariness, and make agencies accountable to Congress and to the public. This suggests that agency avoidance of rulemaking procedures has some benefits, but also many costs.

Elicitive Capacity as a Critical Component for an Infrastructure for Peace

An important component of Peacebuilding processes are constructive relationships between external intervening actors and individuals and communities who have experience of the complexities involved by violent conflict and transition from war to peace. The article defines “elicitive capacity” as the ability of external (and internal) actors to foster agency within the existing potential for peace in a given society; and at the same time to build effective linkages and partnerships with actors already present in the society.Elicitive capacity entails an ability to listen to relevant stakeholders in the area; institutional flexibility; an orientation towards empowerment and recognition. Elicitive capacity can occur within different levels society and types of interaction, and can assume different forms: e.g. as transformative dialogue facilitation, based on processual empowerment and recognition; in the form of experiential education, individual and collective capacity building; as the “opening of space” for collective action.

Beyond the Screams

In debates about migration from Mexico, popular culture, especially music, can be an important political space for expressing feelings and thoughts about nativist discourses. Ann Cvetkovich’s notion of “archives of feelings” is helpful for understanding political texts that address the plight of Mexicans in music. Performances become reflexive spaces that foster agency by allowing for a critique of politics from outside of and within Latino communities. Interviews with participants in the Latino punk scene and an interpretation of the documentary film Beyond the Screams/Más allá de los gritos show how punk lyrics, musical performances, and representations become interpretive sites when performed in public. The texts and performances discussed here create powerful transnational archives of feelings that contest official stories about the subordination of Mexicans and all Latinos. En los debates sobre la migración mexicana, la cultura popular, especialmente la música, puede convertirse en un importante espacio político para expresar sentimientos y pensamientos acerca de los discursos nativistas. La noción de “archivos de sentimientos” (archives of feelings) propuesta por Ann Cvetkovich resulta útil para entender los textos políticos que se ocupan, musicalmente, de la difícil situación de los mexicanos. Las actuaciones se convierten en espacios de reflexión que promueven la agencia al presentar una crítica política desde fuera y dentro de las comunidades latinas. Entrevistas con los participantes en la escena punk latina y una interpretación de la película documental Beyond the Screams/Más allá de los gritos muestran cómo las letras de canciones punk, las actuaciones musicales y sus representaciones se convierten en sitios de interpretación cuando se realizan públicamente. Los textos y actuaciones aquí discutidos crean archivos transnacionales de sentimiento que refutan las historias oficiales sobre la subordinación de los mexicanos y todos los latinos.

Institutional Flexibility and Training for Employment vs. Entrepreneurship?: Evidence from China

The “embedded agency” problem in institutional theory suggests that it is unclear how durable, stable institutions, which are thought to constrain individuals, paradoxically foster agency and variation in individual behavior. We argue that institutions might sometimes enable individual agency by allowing, rather than constraining, individual choice, something we refer to as “institutionalized choice.” This paper explores a natural experiment at Tsinghua University, in which the institution eliminated a constraint, the academic year system, resulting in greater institutionalized choice among students. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that institutionalized choice fostered greater variation in students’ choices in selecting courses and in turn, generated greater entrepreneurial behavior. Furthermore, we find that institutionalized choice can affect individuals in distinct ways, which encourages individuals with middle levels of academic achievement (GPA) to choose more diverse courses relative to those with higher or lower levels.

“I Allow Myself to FEEL Now …”: Adolescent Girls' Negotiations of Embodied Knowing, the Female Body, and Literacy

This study sought to provide new insights to the following questions: When discussing their literacy practices, how do adolescent girls talk about their bodies? What is the role of the body in some young women's literacy? What are the different forms that (dis)embodied learning can take, and what is its role in girls' literacy education? These questions were developed out of an interest in shedding light upon how particular literacies foster agency, how school and other institutional contexts can sometimes feel physically controlling, and how voice/silence are related to (dis)embodied knowledge. Grounded in the above questions, this article shares a cross-case analysis focused on issues of the body as they relate to case studies of three adolescent girls (ages 18–21) of diverse backgrounds. Informants participated in several interviews and the assembling of literacy artifacts, and the interviews were analyzed with the Listening Guide, a feminist, voice-centered, relational methodology. First, the work is situated theoretically by defining and exploring terms such as agency, embodied knowing, and voice/silence, and how they all relate to literacy, school, and learning. Second, the methodological framework used to collect and analyze data with the female informants is provided. Third, the cross-case analysis of case studies is provided, focusing on the three themes of agency, the physically controlling nature of schools/institutions, and the notion of silence or disembodied knowing when it comes to such issues as sexuality and social class. The three informants all engaged somewhat critically with their literacies, though not in a consistent fashion, exhibiting some dissonance or disembodied knowing in relation to their literacy practices. Even in the face of this dissonance, the informants used a form of play to negotiate the various roles of texts in their lives and their negotiations of body. Last, concluding thoughts are shared, with tangible suggestions for teachers and teacher educators. This study fortified the need to empower girls to critically reflect on their literacies in a consistent manner, so as to inspire educational reform through critical literacy and through emphasis on the affective and bodily dimensions of learning.

Facades of Suffering: Clients' Photo Stories About Mental Illness

In this article, photo stories are examined that were the result of working with photography as a therapeutic instrument dealing with suffering in mental health care settings. The purpose is to describe the role of facades in the process of suffering and acceptance. Clients took photographs, talked about them in group meetings, and exhibited them to a broader audience. Their photo stories were analyzed using a mixed-methods model. Data from two narrative approaches (semiotics and hermeneutics) were compared with information from other informants and official records to find discrepancies between the photo story and the real life context. Although facades are usually perceived as an obstacle for personal growth, the visual narratives revealed that facades can function as an alternative to common acceptance strategies, such as facing one's losses and reconciliation. Facades can create a distance between the person and the suffering. We conclude that visual narratives can reveal and foster agency in clients.

Cognitive-behavioural training interventions for assisting foster carers in the management of difficult behaviour.

The provision of training for foster carers is now seen as an important factor contributing to the successful outcome of foster care placements. Since the late 1960s, foster carer training programs have proliferated, and few of the many published and unpublished training curricula have been systematically assessed and evaluated. The advent of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and the research evidence demonstrating its effectiveness as a psychotherapeutic treatment of choice, has prompted many working in the social care field to devise CBT-based training programmes. CBT approaches to foster care training derive from a 'skill-based' training format that also seeks to identify and correct problematic thinking patterns that are associated with dysfunctional behaviour by changing and/or challenging maladaptive thoughts and beliefs. To assess the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural training interventions in improving a) looked-after children's behavioural/relationship problems, b) foster carers' psychological well-being and functioning, c) foster family functioning, d) foster agency outcomes. We searched databases including: CENTRAL (Cochrane Library Issue 3, 2006), MEDLINE (January 1966 to September 2006), EMBASE (January 1980 to April 2004), CINAHL (January 1982 to April 2004), PsycINFO (January 1872 to April 2004), ASSIA (January 1987 to April 2004), LILACS (up to April 2004), ERIC (January 1965 to April 2004), Sociological Abstracts (January 1963 to April 2004), and the National Research Register 2004 (Issue 3). We contacted experts in the field concerning current research. All studies in which participants were foster parents/carers, and who were allocated by random or quasi-random methods to a CBT-based training intervention (in a group and/or one-to-one settings) versus a no-treatment or wait-list control, were selected. Data from the six eligible trials (total n = 463 ) were extracted and entered into RevMan. Results were synthesised and presented in both graphical (forest plots) and narrative form (where insufficient data were provided for effect size computations). Training interventions evaluated to date appear to have very little effect on outcomes relating to looked-after children, assessed in relation to psychological functioning, extent of behavioural problems and interpersonal functioning. Results relating to foster carer(s) outcomes also show no evidence of effectiveness in measures of behavioural management skills, attitudes and psychological functioning. Analysis pertaining to fostering agency outcomes did not show any significant results. There is currently little evidence about the efficacy of CBT-based training intervention for foster carers. The need for further research in this area is highlighted.

Early Childhood Developmental and Nutritional Training for Foster Parents

This exploratory study examined the effectiveness of a foster parent nutrition training program. Conducted in collaboration between Woman, Infants and Children (WIC) and a state foster care licensing agency, the study involved providing an intensive training to 11 self-selected foster parents. The participants completed pre-tests and post-tests related to their level of knowledge and comfort in the area of infant nutritional needs. Paired t-tests detected significant differences before and after the intervention, with participants reporting improved knowledge and understanding. While the sample was small and voluntary, the authors feel these pilot results merit further attention in the areas of practice and research.

Foster fathers: their experiences and contributions to fostering

ABSTRACTThe paper reports some of the findings of an exploratory study that looks at foster fathers’ experiences of fostering and discusses their routes into foster care and their perspectives on their roles and tasks. The study collected quantitative and qualitative data by approaching all foster fathers registered with a single independent fostering agency based in south‐east England. They were asked about their personal and professional attributes, and their experiences of and views concerning the role of a foster father. The study discusses the foster fathers’ motivation to foster, and argues that what they see as the benefits and drawbacks of fostering, and how it fits into their own family lives, are all relevant to improving service recruitment, delivery and retention. The study produced some evidence about the distinctive and positive contribution that foster fathers see themselves making to the lives of the children they foster. Further research is needed to refine our knowledge of what this contribution may be. Such knowledge could potentially develop our understanding of the roles of fathers in child development more generally as well as fine‐tuning practice in matching what particular placements have to offer to the needs of individual children.

Foster parent perceptions of placement breakdown

The purpose of the study was to describe the perceived causes of placement breakdown by foster parents. Sixty-three foster parents from fifty families were asked to describe their challenges in response to the following question: “What would make you consider ending a foster placement”? The responses to this question were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, to yield nine themes. Foster parents indicated that they would consider ending a placement if there was a danger to their family, if the child could not adapt to the home or if they could not handle the child's behavior. Participants reported that the complex health needs of a foster child, problems dealing with the foster agency, and several unsuccessful attempts to make the placement work would cause a placement to breakdown. Foster parents also indicated that they would consider ending a placement if their personal circumstances changed, their own health deteriorated, or there was a lack of appropriate external support in place. The results of the study point to gaps in the research on violence in general foster care, foster parent perceptions of contributions to a foster child's transition back to his or her birth family, and the process of foster parent decision-making in cases of placement breakdown.

O conhecimento produzido no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Enfermagem: a enfermagem psiquiátrica

After almost 30 years since the creation of the Psychiatric Nursing Concentration Area in the Graduate Program of the University of São Paulo Nursing School, it is important to take a look at its scientific production in order to substantiate reflection about teaching. This is a descriptive-exploratory study. It used as sources the registers of the Graduate Service, abstracts from theses and dissertations, and memoranda and official correspondence. The data collected were analyzed in the light of the transformations occurred in this structure that has graduated 60 students, of which 50 obtained a Master's Degree and 10 a PhD, and that has been restructuring its disciplines, research lines and projects with the objective of responding to internal and external evaluations and adjusting to the guidelines of the country's fostering agencies. Current scientific production points out to an alignment with the guidelines of the Psychiatric Reform, and a tendency to produce knowledge through the concrete practice of the workers in the assistance field, the mana-gement and the teaching of Mental Health.

Pós-graduação stricto sensu em anestesiologia: experiência de dez anos na UNESP

There are still few strictu sensu Post-Graduation Programs in Anesthesiology in Brazil. Aiming at fostering post-graduation in Anesthesiology in Brazil, we present the experience of ten years at Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP).Strictu sensu post-graduation program in Anesthesiology - UNESP was accredited by CAPES since its beginning in 1994, for Master and Doctoral programs. The program is developed around three fields of study: Organs and Systems Risk and Protection in Anesthesia and Surgery; Quality and Safety in Anesthesiology; and Clinical and Experimental Models for Pain Therapy, with their respective 14 research lines. The number of regular students is compatible with the number of faculty advisers (12), with three students per adviser in average. From its beginning to September 2004, there were 45 Master and 24 Doctoral reports, in a total of 69 presentations, most of them with scholarships and funding granted by Research Fostering Agencies. After receiving their doctor's degree, 65% of students dedicate themselves to teaching and researching in Brazilian public and private universities. Most studies are published in Qualis A Brazilian journals with a lower number of publications in international Qualis A or B journals. The program was scored 4.0 by CAPES, in a scale from 1 to 7, in its three most recent evaluations.The program has positively evolved throughout its 10 years of existence and major objectives have been reached, such as qualification of professors and investigators in Anesthesiology for Brazilian universities.

Hope, Social Support, and Behavioral Problems in At-Risk Children.

This study investigated the effects of hope, social support, and stress on behavioral problems in a high-risk group of 65 children of incarcerated mothers. Children with low levels of hope had more externalizing and internalizing problems. Children who perceived less social support had more externalizing problems, and children who had experienced more life stressors reported more internalizing problems. Regression analyses indicated that hope contributed unique variance to both internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems after social support and stress were controlled. These findings suggest that being confident in one's ability to overcome challenges and having a positive outlook function as protective factors, whereas being less hopeful may place a child at risk for developing adjustment problems. Whether it is possible to foster agency and teach pathways to children with lower levels of hope is discussed.

Soins précoces : devenir psychosocial des familles et développement des enfants

In the past decades, an extensive body on early intervention research programs has grown with numerous scientific publications in the English language litterature, while such studies remain rare in France. This study reports the outcome of families whose children were followed in an out-patient treatment centre, the Unité de Soins Spécialisés à Domicile (USSD) in Paris. This institution, created in 1975, was designed to promote healthy parent-infant relationships and prevent difficulties for families exhibiting psycho-emotional and or psychiatric risks. The objectives are to enhance infant and early child development, to support parenting competences and to fight against intergenerational process of maltreatment and child placement. The theoretical references of the multidisciplinary team are the psychoanalysis, the attachment theory and the clinic of interactions. Thirty-height families were selected from the files of the USSD: They all had a child aged before the age of 18 months, born between 1985 and 1990 and were cared for more than one year ; the other children received intervention after this age. Assessment of parents and children was made when the families had been out of treatment for at least five years. As it is a preliminary study without a control group, we have choose a psychosocial and comprehensive approach more focused on family issues than individual ones. For each child and family, institutional data were collected and argued with the all the professionals still present in the institution: admission in the institution, parental problems and infant symptoms (with reference to the DSM IV and the Zero-to-Three classification), therapeutic interventions (psychodynamic or interpersonal, parents-children groups, parental or children groups, home visiting…), child's re-educations, relationship with other social or psychiatric teams, orientation after the intervention.Thirty-one situations were re-evaluated. Standardized materials (WISC-R subtests, Rutter A scale for children, Nottingham Health Profile for parents) and semi-structured interviews were used for the assessments. Parental consent and administrative authorizations (for children in foster families or institutions) were obtained and interviews were registered. Two groups of families were studied. Group I included families without specific pathology, they received therapeutic intervention for a mean of 2 1/2 years, most of the mothers were depressed. It was composed of 2 sub-groups : in 8 families, the child's birth with severe perinatal problems had brought about the parental trauma, for 7 families, psycho-emotional problems were blew up again after the child's birth, signs of maltreatment could be detected. Group II included families at high risk for child abuse and neglect with numerous psychosocial stress, most of them were followed by social workers ; interventions had lasted for a mean of 6 years. It was composed of two sub-groups: seven disorganized family situations with alcohol abuse and depressed mothers, and nine families with psychotic mothers, most of the babies were placed in foster care. We met 16 parental couples and 13 monoparental families twice and seven foster families. Twenty-five young people were interviewed and complementary information was obtained for seven others from the Child Protection services and foster agencies. Results focus on: 1) the families' present situation, healh representations and their social/relational and parental competences ; 2) for the young people: the intellectual and scholastic competences, behaviour, social relationships with their peers. They are presented in each of the sub-groups for parents and for children ; differences and common points are noted in the two groups of families I and II. Mean ages at assessment were 12,3 years for children in group I and 13,3 in group II. Except in one case (children became Wards of the State), parents are able to carry out their responsibilities, totally in group I or partially in group II where it was shared with the Child Protection services for most children and adolescents were still placed. No serious child abuse or neglect was detected and there was a positive evolution for the parents' social and family relationships especially in group I. The family support is more precarious in group II, counterbalanced by social and medical support. Concerning children and adolescents, two third are in the normal school system, the others are in classes for slow learners, one is in a day care hospital. A third have behaviour problems. For all of these young people, verbal subtests (Vocabulary and Similarities, were more succeeded than the performance subtest (Block Design), this result is associated with facilities in verbal expression showed during the interviews. The impact of early therapeutic intervention is notable among children of the families at high risk who had received such care before the age of one: the all have better social competences with peers, less behaviour problems and school failure than the others. Given these results, we can assume that early therapeutic intervention mediates psycho-social risk in these families. As this study is mostly descriptive, it should be followed by complementary research on larger populations.

Independent fostering agencies uncovered: the findings of a national study

ABSTRACTThis paper presents the findings of a survey of independent fostering agencies (IFAs) in England, Scotland and Wales. Information was gathered about their operational arrangements, services, fees, staffing, foster carers and the children and young people in placement. This information is supplemented by an earlier evaluation of one large English IFA and by reference to the available relevant literature. The expansion of the IFAs has been generally greeted with hostility by local authority managers because of what is perceived as the loss of foster carers to the independent sector, the costs of the IFAs and their position outside the public welfare sector. This paper questions the validity of these views following an examination of the status of the agencies, the background of their foster carers and the circumstances surrounding the placements of the children and young people. It concludes by identifying gaps in our knowledge and areas for future research.

The Aims and Principles of Independent Fostering Agencies: A View from the Inside

Attitudes within the wider child placement public sector towards the place of independent fostering agencies remain largely negative, especially when expressed by local authority senior managers. Clive Sellick considers these alongside some other views that have emerged from the findings of relevant research. He goes on to examine the mission statements of 55 independent fostering agencies included in a recent national survey of the services, costs, staff, foster carers and children and young people in placement in these agencies. The author has undertaken a qualitative analysis of these statements in order to identify the aims and principles that underpin agency practice. Three main themes emerge relating to promoting children's welfare, providing a range of services for children and carers and creating a competent and available foster carer workforce. These are considered alongside the profiles of ten agencies to illustrate the breadth of provision available to local authorities. The author concludes by suggesting that information about the purpose and provision of independent fostering is likely to lead to a more balanced view and use of this sector.