An ecological systems approach to understanding social support in foster family resilience

Families who care for children in the foster care system often experience challenges related to the system, accessing services and supports, and managing relationships. Despite these challenges, many families thrive because of unique attributes and strengths that contribute to experiences of resilience. Using an ecological framework, this study examined social support among resilient foster families to better understand how foster caregivers experienced positive reciprocal transactions across systems. As part of a larger study, in‐depth narrative interviews were conducted to examine the process of resilience for families who foster. Findings revealed that families accessed and benefited from social support on micro‐level, meso‐level and macro‐level. Understanding how families cultivated social support across multiple levels offers implications for practice and policy when considering how best to retain and support families who care for vulnerable children.     

The Supply of Foster Families for Children in Care

Correspondence to John Miles, Institute of Social and Applied Psychology, The University, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7LZ. Summary The family circumstances of 2694 foster homes in England arecompared with representative families from the 1985 GeneralHousehold Survey. Foster families typically include a womanin the 31–55 age group, live in homes with three or morebedrooms, are two parent families with one parent working full-timeand the other not, and they have older children only. The incidenceof families with these characteristics is used to develop anestimator of the relative supply position of local authorityareas for foster care, from which a number of conclusions aredrawn. Over the last thirty years some social changes have improvedthe supply, others decreased it, and on balance the nationalsupply position is little changed. Ironically, supply is bestin those areas which have the lowest need for fostering services.Ways in which local authorities can improve their supply positionare considered. The supply estimator reveals that the averageboarding out payments made by authorities show clear signs ofresponsiveness to the local supply position for foster families.     

Social services provided for physically abused children in Sweden: background factors and interventions

This study aims at describing and analysing what kinds of social services are provided for physically abused children in Sweden. The social services files were examined for 113 children under 15 years of age (67 boys and 46 girls) who had been reported to the police as having been physically abused by a parent or equivalent caretaker in a particular police district. The children's social services files indicated an increased risk of a parental abusive behaviour prior to the abuse incident. There had been former interventions in 81 per cent of the families and previous reports on neglect or abuse in 44 per cent of the 113 families. After the abuse incident, investiga-tions were opened in 80 per cent of the cases. The three most common interventions were placement in foster care, referrals to Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service and Social Services support contacts. The study shows that there was a tendency towards more proactive work with injured children, children of immigrant parents and children of mentally ill parents.     

Everything for the Children: Orphans Growing Up in Informal Adoptive Families in China

Most orphaned children in China are cared for by their extended families or become state wards under the guardianship of child welfare institutions. Some exceptions are children who are found and cared for by families in the community, without a formalized adoption or foster relationship. In some locations, institutions now accept guardianship for these children and support the informal adoptive family to continue to care for them. This article examines the outcomes for these children as they became young adults by comparing these 12 children raised within the system as they approach or have approached young adulthood (now aged 16–40 years-old). Some of the participants were either informally adopted or lived in institutional care. The results of this study found that the family environment was more conducive to the young people’s wellbeing as they approached or entered adulthood. The participants raised in informal care appeared to be treated similar to the biological children in these families. When the institution formalized the state guardianship responsibility, it also meant the families had state resources for support to protect the children’s rights to economic security, education, health care, and social participation. This practice by the institution supported the addition of informal adoption, as one step closer to permanency than foster care. Future implications include considering this option to help promote the family system assisting these children, families, and the state.     

Lapsele Oma Kodu (bringing abandoned children home): a project from Tallinn, Estonia to reunite institutionalized children with families

In 1993 it was estimated that there were approximately 2000 children in 64 institutions in Estonia. Children in Estonia and in other central and eastern European countries are often removed from their homes and placed in institutions in order to ensure that their basic physical needs will be met. Lapsele Oma Kodu is a project that was initiated in Estonia in 1993 to (a) train social workers and homemakers to provide family services to reunite institutionalized children with families; (b) return home a minimum of 50 institutionalized children; (c) demonstrate a model family support program; and (d) influence public opinion and child welfare policy in Estonia. Between April 1993 and June 1994, services were provided to 150 families (including 187 children). A total of 101 children have been removed from institutions and placed with biological, foster or adoptive families. An additional 19 children have been able to remain with their families through preventive services. This article presents data from the first 15 months of project activities that can be useful to other countries in central and eastern Europe initiating similar family service programs in the post-Soviet era.     

Child welfare services in the United States and Sweden: different assumptions, laws and outcomes

The child welfare systems in Sweden and the United States were dramatically reformed beginning in the early 1980s. After 10 years, the different results of these reforms are quite striking. These child welfare systems have different methods for preserving families in crisis; different assumptions about the roles of birth parents, foster parents, and adoptive parents; and different goals for children who will not go home. Each of these areas is explored and recommendations made for re-examining child welfare services in both countries.     

Are children in foster care in better psychological health than children in institutions? What factors influence the outcome?

The aim of this study was to compare the psychological health of children in foster care with that of children in institutional care. Social workers were asked to assess the psychological health of the children as well as several other criteria on the basis of an analysis grid. Our sample consisted of 568 children placed in foster care and 661 children placed in institutions. Our results show that children in care who lived longer with their birth parents have a lower psychological health. Furthermore, the psychological health of children in residential care is lower than children placed in foster families. As children in institution are placed later than children in foster families, this may partially explain the lower psychological health of children in residential care. As a result, children in residential care have experienced more abuse and neglect and witnessed more domestic violence than children in foster care. In addition, children in residential care have more poor-quality contacts with their birth parents than children in foster family. These contacts negatively influence their psychological health. Finally, the factor that most influences the psychological health of children in care is the quality of the relationship with the people who care for them on a daily basis. Again, children placed in foster families have better-quality relationships with their foster families than children placed in institutions.     

Behavioural and emotional problems of children by type of out-of-home care in Croatia

The aim of this article is to compare the kinds of behavioural and emotional problems of youth in relation to type of out-of-home placement in Croatia. Children living in children's homes manifest significantly more behavioural and emotional problems than other groups of children in out-of-home care or children living in their primary families. Children living in foster families or in family-type homes integrated in the community do not differ from a comparative group of children living in primary families. Regardless of differences among sub-samples regarding behavioural and emotional problems, the current problems of individual children in all groups of children in out-of-home placement were connected more to currently experienced stressors than to unfavourable circumstances before their removal. This indicates that there are benefits to be gained by improving services in the children's present care environment.     

Residential care: an effective response to out‐of‐home children and young people?

The ever‐growing number of out‐of‐home children in Italy over the last decade has urged an assessment of the available care services. Although foster care is spreading rapidly, many young people are still housed in residential facilities. Reflection on residential care quality has intensified at both a national and an international level. This paper presents the results of a study on residential care facilities for children and young people in the region of Northern Italy (Lombardy). Four dimensions of ‘quality’ are considered: efficiency, effectiveness, participation in planning and intervention, and empowerment of children and their family relationships. The combined effects of these dimensions are defined as ‘relational quality’. The results show that residential care facilities are generally good, while Social Services resources often appear inadequate for interventions aimed at birth families (efficiency). The well‐being of children in residential care facilities is high, even if they tend to move from one facility to another, rarely returning to their birth family (effectiveness). The involvement of children and their families at different stages of the care path is limited (participative approach). Finally, the most critical element is the failure to properly involve birth families (empowerment).     

Group Work with Natural Parents in Permanency Planning

Group work with parents of children in foster care has good potential as a complement to casework services in permanency planning. An underused social work service in child welfare, group work has rarely been provided to natural parents. It can be utilized differentially along the foster care continuum from needs identification through aftercare to provide parents information, support and training specific to foster care. Reports of group work services for abusing parents, parents of children in residential treatment and special programs for natural parents provide relevant information for design of group work with natural parents. An example of a group of parents whose children are in foster home placement is presented. Special considerations for providing group services to natural parents are highlighted. Group work appears to have positive effects on the providing agency as well as on parent group participants. Issues regarding group work in permanency planning include the risk of its misuse through agency-imposed agendas and/or agency determined timetables for individual and group development. It will be helpful to study what group services with which parents at which points in the foster care continuum assist permanency planning efforts.     

The unknown soldiers of foster care: Foster care as loss for the foster parents’ own children

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of the foster care experience on foster parents’ biological children. In spite of having been accepted for over 40 years as the best form of residential care for most children and adolescents requiring alternative living arrangements, very little research has been done into the foster care experience. Almost nothing is known about the effects of foster care on either the foster family as a unit or its individual members, yet one of the major concerns foster parents present is the effect of the foster care experience on their own children. This concern leads many experienced foster families to leave foster care and many potential foster families to decide not to foster. This paper discusses the losses experienced by the children of foster parents.     

Foster care in France: children's perception of their own well‐being

Working to improve the welfare of children in care is a priority shared by all French child protection services. However, the means to measure and improve well‐being are limited (Fergeus et al., 2019). Although the trend today is towards a more comprehensive understanding of the point of view of adults involved in the socioeducational process, too little is done to include the children's own perception of their situation and conditions of care. The purposes of this study are to document and analyse the point of view of children in foster families on their subjective well‐being and also to identify contextual factors that influence it. Ninety‐one children living in foster care, aged 13.5 years on average, completed the French version of the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale developped by Huebner, Zullig Runa in 2012. The multidimensional evaluation of well‐being (family, school, self, friends, and living conditions) reveals a moderate life satisfaction within the foster family and a weak one at school. Total life satisfaction levels are directly linked to the number of care orders the child has experienced, their duration, and the type of education received. The implications of these results for professional practices related to children in care will be discussed.     

Secure Attachment to Family and Community

ABSTRACT

Disproportionately large numbers of high risk clients from Multiple Problem Families (MPFs) utilize a disproportionately large percentage of Medicaid, Health and Human Services. Clients from these families are involved in domestic violence, addiction, child abuse and neglect. They are over represented on the caseloads of state protective service agencies. The approach outlined in this paper is based on social attachment theory models. It stresses the use of long-term, home-based therapy, and community support agencies to establish and maintain safe secure attachment for these fragile families. The therapeutic goals are to foster attachments that lead to increased mentalisation, and to decrease the crisis-driven behavior that often results in high cost utilization of state services. A placement prevention model, outlined as an alternative “mentalising social system” approach, is proposed for treating disruptive MPF children. Family oriented, in-home, community-based treatment is found to be more cost effective and therapeutically helpful for these children than costly inpatient psychiatric admission followed by residential care.     

Termination of parental rights: Which foster care children are affected?

In 1997, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was passed with a primary goal of expediting the process of placing foster children with permanent or adoptive families. In order to meet this goal, ASFA requires states to terminate parental rights if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months. Prior empirical research on foster care dependence supports the provision in ASFA to expedite the discharge process because over time children are progressively less likely to be discharged from foster care. However, very little research has examined what impact terminating parental rights will have on this goal. One of the first steps is to examine which children are most likely to see the rights of their parents terminated and how these children differ from those children who are returned home. Using a competing risks hazard model we find many differences between the children who are sent home and those children whose parents have their rights terminated.     

The social economy of excluded families

Families with material, social and cultural resources can be seen as triply advantaged, while those without are thrice disadvantaged. The authors contend that families' connectedness or exclusion from their communities, and the processes that marginalize or substantially exclude families from the benefits of the wider society, are among the most important dimensions for practice in the family services field. Using selected theory relating to individuals and families in society, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for understanding all families in their social economy, with special attention to families who experience material, social and cultural poverty. These families are vulnerable to becoming excluded families, not only propelled into a survival mode of living that evokes distinct skills and strengths in family members, but also has profound deleterious effects on both children and their parents. When child and family services encounter these excluded families, they need to respond with complex linked strategies at individual, family, network and policy levels.     

The social support in kinship foster care: a way to enhance resilience

This paper analyses how social support enhances family resilience in kinship foster families by involving the families in an educational group programme. Sixty‐two kinship foster families from Spain participated in the research. The data were collected before the programme (interviews) and after the programme (interviews and focus groups), and these were analysed by content analysis with the programme Atlas.ti. The results show that the factors that contribute most to the development of family resilience are as follows: (i) feeling able to look for solutions when facing problems; (ii) an increase of their network of formal support; (iii) being able to offer support to other foster families; and (iv) feeling that the support they give to parents' foster children is socially recognized.     

Network governance among actors involved in the government’s contracting out of foster care services: A case study in China

The government's contracting out of foster care services in Guangzhou, China, introduced the possibility of partnerships between nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and government-led human services. To understand network governance among actors involved in contracting out foster care services, service funders, service providers, and service users were interviewed. A thematic analysis of interviews combined with a critical review of archival data was conducted. Drawing from the policy network governance analytic framework, we found that network governance conditions in contracting out foster care services were characterized by close interdependence among actors, moderate standardization in work duties, but nonreciprocal patterns of interactions, and low to modest levels of autonomy, along with strong power in the government but limited self-governance among NGOs and foster families. Our findings indicate that network governance was not fully achieved among actors involved in the contracting out of foster care services. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Kinship Foster Care and Its Impact on Grandmother Caregivers

Summary

Kinship foster care programs are designed to address the needs of relatives, usually grandparents, who have taken in children who have been removed from their homes voluntarily, or following a substantiated report of neglect and/or abuse. The author reviews the history of kinship foster care nationally and examines related research. Reported are findings on a survey of kinship foster care programs nationwide and from qualitative interviews with nine grandmothers from New York City who were kinship foster care providers. Particular attention was paid in these surveys to the impact of kinship foster care on families caring for children with disabilities.     

Early childhood services and support for vulnerable families: lessons from the Benevolent Society's Partnerships in Early Childhood program

Access to early childhood services is widely considered to be an important means of supporting vulnerable children and families. Yet the evidence that access to such services automatically makes a difference for vulnerable families is mixed at best. The growing presence of for‐profit early childhood services may have an impact on the sector's capacity to provide the enhanced education and care to those most likely to benefit. What are the current and future possibilities for early childhood services to benefit vulnerable children and families? What resources are required to build the capacity of early childhood settings in supporting vulnerable families, and are these likely to differ between for‐profit and not‐for‐profit settings? This paper will explore these questions using a Benevolent Society project, Partnerships in Early Childhood, funded through the Commonwealth's Stronger Families and Communities Strategy, Invest to Grow, as an illustrative case study. Researchers from the Social Policy Research Centre evaluated the first three years of the project, which involves a number of not‐for‐profit early education and care providers. The paper describes the implementation of PIEC as an attempt to improve the quality of early education and care services to vulnerable children, and lessons that can be drawn for the future of similar interventions. We conclude that time, support for staff and partnerships between different organisations appear to be critical for the success of these interventions, and that the capacity of for‐profit services to provide these resources deserves attention.     

Facilitating access to services for children and families: lessons from Sure Start Local Programmes

With the introduction of the highly publicized Sure Start Local Programme (SSLP) initiative in 1998, the UK government introduced a community‐based set of provisions targeted at families with children under 4 years who were living in some of the 20% most deprived and disadvantaged geographical areas in England. These programmes were designed to combat the adverse effects of poverty and disadvantage on the long‐term outcomes for children and families. One challenging dimension for programme development has been the facilitation of access to the services on offer in these programmes. Drawing on findings from the implementation module within the government‐commissioned National Evaluation of Sure Start, this paper examines the way in which SSLPs have sought to facilitate access to services for their local communities and to encourage community members to take up and continue using those services. This paper presents a detailed overview of programme activity in respect of access. It identifies a continuum of access and a model of three styles of parental service use. The paper highlights the implications of the SSLP implementation process for the development of subsequent related initiatives such as children’s centres and extended schools.