Developmentalism and the Rhetoric of Best Interests of the Child

Abstract

The foster care system in Australia has recently recognised the importance of encouraging lesbians and gay men to become foster carers. Whilst this may be seen as an important step towards overcoming social stereotypes that position lesbians and gay men as unfit parents, I propose that foster care public policy in Australia is shaped by a number of key assumptions that effectively exclude lesbian and gay foster parents. In particular, I focus on how the logic of developmentalism [where children are assumed to follow a (hetero)normative developmental pathway] and the rhetoric of best interests of the child (within which a particular moral framework is employed to judge who can and who cannot protect children) work to recenter a normative understanding of families and parenting that encourages lesbians and gay parents to adopt a heterosexual model of parenting.     

Do Foster Parents and Care Workers Recognize the Needs of Youth in Family Foster Care with a History of Sexual Abuse?

Children in family foster care have the right to participate in decisions regarding their life, however, adults often advocate on behalf of children. This Q methodological study explored whether shared perspectives among foster parents and care workers resemble shared perspectives of youth regarding the psychosocial needs experienced by youth with a history of sexual abuse. Participants sorted a set of statement cards according to what they thought was most important for youth. By-person factor analyses examined how the Q sorts of foster parents and care workers related to those of youth. The results showed that foster parents mostly recognized the group of youth who value an instrumental relationship with their carers, while care workers mostly recognized the group of youth who value support of both foster and birth parents with regard to their preparation for independent living. The two youth groups characterized by ambivalence and autonomy were barely recognized. Results are discussed in light of the expected roles of foster parents and care workers, and youth’s contact with birth parents. Lastly, this study highlights the importance of youth participation, because youth offer unique and varying perspectives about their needs.     

'Young Carers' and Disabled Parents: Time for a change of direction?

In less than a decade, children who provide care for ill or disabled parents and siblings have become a major target of social welfare services. 'Young carers' suffer, it is suggested, from a degradation in mental and physical health, have damaged educational careers, restricted social networks, and will suffer long-term consequences in adult life as a result of their childhood caring roles. This paper argues that limited empirical evidence exists for these claims and that, where legitimate concerns arise, they are frequently related to poverty, social exclusion, and unsupported or inadequate parenting, and have no direct relationship to illness or impairment. While dedicated services to young carers have made a valuable contribution in highlighting an important social issue, a radical review of their place in the overall structure of support services for families affected by illness or disability is long overdue.     

The Role of Companion Animals Throughout the Family Life Cycle

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the roles that companion animals play in the lives of American families, and discusses how those roles change as families progress through the stages of the family life cycle. It highlights the importance of pets in the lives of children and the benefits they receive from such relationships. It also presents information regarding the role of a child that animals often assume within families that do not have children. This paper also discusses the impact that the death of a pet has on the family, and provides suggestions for social workers who assist families that have strong attachment to companion animals.     

Family Experiences of Caring for Relatives Who Have Received Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

The research literature on family members’ experiences of the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is limited. This article explores the perspectives of family members whose relatives had received ECT. Drawing on a social constructionist perspective, this qualitative study collected data using in-depth interviews with nine families in South Australia, to examine how family members constructed the supports and challenges they experienced. The research found that families experienced a range of social and service system barriers, including social stigma and isolation, and limited support from health professionals. They had to negotiate caring expectations within a social context that stigmatised both mental illness and ECT. A need for ECT-specific mental health support groups was identified.

IMPLICATIONS

• Social workers’ roles in Australian hospitals could be further expanded to accommodate supporting families whose relatives have received ECT, referring families to community support, and advocating for specialist support post-ECT treatment.

• Social workers can further articulate their unique contribution to community care post-ECT treatment and advocate for supporting families.

• Increased focus on ongoing and preventative care for supporting families is a potential growth area for social workers in mental health.

     

Levels of burden and satisfaction among Spanish foster carers

The aim of this study was to analyse the levels of burden and satisfaction among foster families in Spain, as well as the relationships between these variables and characteristics of the foster children and their carers. Participants were 86 foster families (comprising 71 foster fathers and 86 foster mothers) and the 104 children who they were fostering (56 boys and 48 girls). The instruments used were the Zarit Burden Interview and a questionnaire on foster carers' satisfaction with the preparation and support they had received. The results revealed low levels of burden among the families. Levels of burden were directly correlated with the amount of time the children had spent in residential care and with the age of foster fathers, and inversely correlated with how long the child had been with the current foster family. Higher levels of burden were reported by carers whose foster child was academically delayed. Regarding satisfaction, the highest ratings corresponded to items referring to the work of professionals, while the lowest were given for items concerning the information that foster families had received about the child's personality and the material and financial support available to them. The implications of the findings for professional practice are discussed.     

The language and policy of care and parenting: Understanding the uncertainty about key players’ roles in foster care provision

Recent debates about the care provided to looked-after children have been characterised by uncertainty about the differing roles and responsibilities of foster carers, birth parents, and social workers. To explore the assumptions underlying these uncertainties, we drew upon Foucauldian Discourse Analysis and compared the discourses used by professionals (social workers in a group discussion about foster placement breakdown) with those used by policy-makers (in the Governmental green paper ‘Care Matters’). In both cases, a discourse based upon Attachment Theory was used to explain why placements succeed and fail, and to predict the repercussions of failure. However, there was a key difference in the way that professionals and policy-makers constructed the roles of key players in foster placements. The social workers constructed the birth parents as the parental figures for children in care, constructing themselves in a non-parental role. ‘Care Matters’ largely ignores the role of birth parents, and instead constructs social workers as parental figures. Neither source viewed foster carers as parental and ‘Care Matters’ positions this group as strictly professional. We discuss the incongruence of foster placements being understood through Attachment Theory, while foster carers are understood as non-parental figures, and also the repercussions of labelling a social worker as a parent, and the professionalization of the role of the foster carer.     

Children's rights: have carers abandoned values?

Traditionally, social workers have been concerned about the importance of values as significantly influencing professional practice. It is argued here that the emphasis on values has latterly been superseded by a focus on rights. This shift in perspective has come to characterise the activities of social workers and ‘professional’ carers such as foster and residential carers, and is related to a growing concentration on the externally measurable elements of practice (performativity) rather than the internal, and relatively intangible, quality of relationships (caring). It is necessary to understand the relationship between rights, needs and values in order to ensure that children are accorded their rights without having to forfeit the experiential quality of relationships with their carers.     

Young Carers: Conventional or Exaggerated Levels of Involvement in Domestic and Caring Tasks?

Historically, research about young carers has focused on defining the tasks and responsibilities undertaken by children caring for ill or disabled family members and the impacts of such care, without reference to the domestic and caring work undertaken by children and young people in families where there are only non‐disabled or well members. This study presents new evidence of what children and young people generally do to assist in the home and examines how the lives of young carers differ from children and young people who are not carers. It concludes by examining the implications of these research findings for evidence‐informed policy and practice. Copyright © 2006 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2006 National Children's Bureau.     

Young people's views of children's rights and advocacy services: a case for ‘caring’ advocacy?

This paper looks at some preliminary findings from research with young people in foster and residential care in the UK who have received advocacy services from a range of local authority and voluntary agencies. The study also includes the views of professionals, from both children's rights and social services. The initial findings highlight the importance to young people of their relationship with rights professionals. They speak about the value to them of care and respect, aspects not always seen as fundamental to rights work. Caring, in its various guises is seen by young people as a vital component of their relationship with children's rights workers. They also see this as important within advocacy work itself since caring about the outcome is often key. A pure individual rights focus with an emphasis on challenge and ‘being heard’ may not take account of the complexity of their situation and may pose difficult dilemmas for young people, especially in dealings with their carers. This ‘caring’ advocacy is not the paternalistic approach of a professional who ‘knows what's best for you’ but is a model based on a strong awareness of ways that young people are excluded and oppressed. It is also about placing a positive value on their contribution as citizens and links to a view of society that gives importance to an ethic of inter‐relationship and care as well as an ethic of individual rights. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Caring at a distance: Learning and practice issues

Emphasis on support for informal carers focuses on those who provide, in the words of the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995, 'substantial' and 'regular' care. Following research and policy, professional education has also developed interest in those who live with the people they support, such as co-resident spouses and children of all ages. This article considers those who probably do not define themselves as carers and are usually referred to as 'relatives' or 'family', living at a distance from an older relative. It explores their possible need for support as well as the form and level of their involvement in relation to care managed services. It describes key areas or events to draw out practice issues and concludes with a discussion of the extent to which care management can work with such relatives. In many ways caring at a distance forces an examination of what is meant by 'care' and who can legitimately claim this as an emotion or status. The rationale for such interest is therefore three-fold. If social workers and social work educators restrict the meaning and their definitions of carers to those who provide 'hands on' services, as part of the care package, they risk alienating relatives from the learning experience of students. In doing so they may neglect these highly valued supports of older people and may leave relatives distressed and disempowered by anxiety over their contract with social work agencies.     

Placement stability in non-kinship foster care: variables associated with placement disruption

In Spain research has been conducted into the outcomes of foster care, although there is a need for further analysis, especially as regards the variables associated with placement disruption. In 2008 (T1) was collated information on all foster placements that were registered in three Spanish provinces. In 2014 (T2), data were gathered by reviewing the children's case notes and through interviews with the social worker responsible for each case. The resulting sample comprised 104 non-kinship foster children in long-term foster care who were being fostered in 86 families. The results obtained at T2 showed that the percentage of children who were still living with the same family (68.3%) was greater than the proportion of children whose circumstances had changed (31.7%). The social workers considered that placement disruption had occurred in 27 of the 33 cases. One of the main finding was placement disruption was associated with the older age at the time of being fostered and the emotional relationship quality between children and foster carers. A regression analysis showed that low levels of warmth and communication in the relationship between child and foster carers were shown to be a predictor of placement breakdown. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Kinship Care and Public Child Welfare: Challenges and Opportunities for Social Work Education

Abstract

The growing practice of arranging and financing “foster placement” of abused and neglected children with relatives provides an opportunity to redefine relationships between extended families and the child welfare system. The dilemmas and possibilities presented by kinship care as a child welfare service challenge schools of social work to provide intellectual leadership and to prepare social workers for changing child welfare practice. The author's ideas concerning responses to this challenge focus on key mandates of the Council on Social Work Education's Curriculum Policy Statement and on five principal curriculum areas in social work education.     

Intergenerational Programming for Foster-Adoptive Families

Abstract

Generations of Hope serves foster and adoptive children, their adoptive families and older adults through an innovative program that is breaking new ground in the development of caring intergenerational communities. It was created in 1993 as a non-profit social service agency designed to improve the service delivery and policies of the child welfare system; it ended up helping not only foster and adopted children but senior citizens as well. This paper examines critical social issues facing both foster children and senior citizens in the United States and how this program created a neighborhood that combines several generations of kin-like support to meet the needs of these vulnerable groups. We describe how the Generations of Hope model brings together in tangible ways critical shifts in perspective regarding foster care and gerontology. The lessons we have learned speak to research, policy making and practice.     

Child Protection Workers’ Perceptions of Foster Carers and the Foster Care System: A Study in Queensland

Abstract

Child protection workers are key players in the statutory system for the protection of children and young people. For this reason, their perceptions of the operation of the system are important. This study, conducted in Queensland, Australia, explored the views of child protection workers regarding foster carers and the foster care system. The present study revealed the difficulties the child protection workers encountered in engaging with foster carers. These difficulties were due to the structure of the child protection system and the conflicts experienced by workers in balancing the needs of children and young people, their primary clients and the carers of those children and young people. Several recommendations for policy and practice are made.     

Work,parenting and gender: the care–work negotiations of three couple relationships in the UK

Changes globally mean that there are now record numbers of mothers in paid employment and a reported prevalence of involved fathering. This poses challenges to mothers and fathers as they negotiate care–work practices within their relationships. Focusing on interviews with three heterosexual couples (taken from a wider UK qualitative project on working parents), the paper considers care–work negotiations of three couples, against a backdrop of debates about intensive mothering and involved fathering. It aims to consider different configurations of work and care within three different couple relationships. We found that power within the relationships was negotiated along differential axis of gender and working status (full- or part-time paid work). We present qualitatively rich insights into these negotiations. Framed by a critical discursive psychological approach, we call on other researchers to think critically about dominant discourses and practices of working, caring and parenting, pointedly how couples situated around the world operationalise these discourses in talking about themselves as worker and carers.     

Challenging implicit bias: preparing students to practice with African American families

ABSTRACT

The disparity of African American families in the foster care system is a concern in the field of child welfare services and the social work profession. African American families experience unique challenges related to discriminatory practices and implicit biases in the child welfare system and by mandated reporters. To address these inequalities, state and local agencies have implemented prevention and intervention services to support minority families. Additionally, child welfare agencies have invested in professional development training for their workers to alleviate possible intolerant practices. This article describes implicit biases and considers how they could contribute to the disparity of African American families involved in the child welfare system. Furthermore, the article presents approaches to help social work students to identify and challenge their implicit biases to support culturally sensitive practices while working with African American families. It concludes with implications for social work education.     

Dementia Patients’ Transition to Residential Aged Care: Carers’ and Social Workers’ Experiences

Many people with dementia eventually require residential aged care, frequently preceded by a hospital admission. Family carers often find the process challenging and disempowering, as they are expected to move their family member to residential aged care quickly. This article reports on findings from a small Australian qualitative study focusing on the provision of information, support and resources, and discusses the findings in relation to person-centred care and critical social work. Social workers completed an online survey and participated in focus groups, and carers were interviewed. The research found that carers valued the information, support, and resources provided by social workers and other hospital staff. They needed time to adjust to the dementia diagnosis and wanted a supportive person to talk to about the written information. The social workers wanted an improved approach to the preparation and communication of information, and a more consistent approach to family meetings.     

Not Always ‘Left-Behind’: Indonesian Adolescent Women Negotiating Transnational Mobility,Filial Piety and Care

In contrast to current research focusing on how migrant parents provide care for their ‘left-behind’ children, this article highlights how Indonesian adolescent women also migrate (or stay) in order to provide care for their families. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted mainly between 2014 and 2015 in Central Javanese migrant-origin villages, this article discusses how opportunities for transnational labour migration affect young unmarried women’s roles as ‘dutiful daughters’ in diverse ways. By analysing how the (im)mobilities of three young women are mutually shaped by diverse expectations to care for their families, I highlight that care is always relational, showing that the distinction between care-givers and care-receivers is less evident than currently assumed in migration studies. Closer examination of how young persons mutually negotiate mobility and parent–child care expectations brings into focus the new forms of agency, power and vulnerability that they encounter in migration and migrant-origin contexts.     

Foster parents exposed to political violence: The role of social support in addressing emotional and functional difficulties

BackgroundBeing a foster parent is stressful. It becomes even more stressful when foster parents face major threats to their own families and to the foster children in their care, such as during war situations. This study focuses on foster parents' reactions to the war with Gaza in southern Israel that took place in 2014. The first goal of this study was to describe posttraumatic symptoms (PTS) and problems in functioning among foster parents following their exposure to the war. The second goal was to identify background and social support predictors of PTS and functioning problems among these parents. The third goal was to examine the role of formal and informal support received by the parents as a moderator of the association between exposure to war events and PTS and problems in functioning.MethodsParticipants were 354 Israeli foster parents who were exposed to the war. Participants completed structured instruments of exposure to war events, PTS, functioning, and social support.ResultsExposure to war events was associated with PTS and related functioning problems. Education and religiosity were correlated with PTS and problems in functioning. Contrary to our hypothesis, more formal social support was associated with more PTS. Social support did not moderate the association between exposure to war events and PTS.DiscussionThe unexpected positive correlation between support and PTS was interpreted as either reflecting the fact that foster care agencies targeted foster parents who were most in need, or as a reflection of the inadequacy of the support they received. The findings indicate that foster parents need support during times of major stressful events such as natural disasters and wars, so that they will be able to help the children in their care. Specialized professional training for foster care workers needs to be implemented. Future longitudinal and mix-methods studies are suggested to help address the limitations of the present study.