The knowledge of caring: revisiting the need for knowledge support of carers

Foster carers' knowledge of caring for abused and neglected children is a largely under-researched area. We know very little about the nature of carers' knowledge in relation to caring for children who have been abused or neglected. This paper reports on an exploratory study which examined the knowledge of caring. Qualitative data were analysed based on in-depth interviews with 10 foster carers in Queensland, Australia. A range of knowledge was identified showing an interaction of both personalized and formal understandings in the caring response. Given the breadth of knowledge recognized from the analysis, this paper presents one dimension of their knowing: theory and abuse-indicated understandings. Participants' responses in these areas were at times sound, but many struggled to provide convincing and well-formed explanations of topics, such as attachment, harm and child development which may suggest that their understandings are not what they could be. Although further research is needed on a larger scale, this study does highlight the necessity to re-examine processes and strategies for carer knowledge support, so as to strengthen their understanding of these issues.     

Children's Use and Knowledge of Display Rules for Anger Following Hypothetical Vignettes versus Following Live Peer Interaction

Our primary goal was to examine the correspondence between children's self-reported use and knowledge of display rules for anger following hypothetical vignettes versus following live peer interactions. Our secondary goal was to investigate whether children's self-reported experience and self-reported expression of anger were related their observed anger expression, considered an observational measure of use of display rules for anger. Participants were 274 second-grade children. Children were first interviewed about their use and knowledge of display rules for anger in game-playing situations depicted through hypothetical vignettes. Several months later, children interacted with a confederate in standardized games designed to simulate the vignettes and answered the same questions about display rules. Children's responses were moderately related across the two contexts. However, following the live interactions, compared to the hypothetical vignettes, children reported feeling less anger, expressing less anger, intending to hide their anger more, and dissembling their anger more. In addition, there were differences in the quality and quantity of strategies for hiding anger that children generated across the two contexts. Observations of anger expression were not related to self-reports of either the experience or expression of anger.     

Tracking the Sexual Behavior-Specific Effects of a Foster Family Treatment Program for Children with Serious Sexual Behavior Problems

Few treatment programs exist for very young children with serious sexual behavior problems. Fewer still have produced data relating to their effectiveness, and the sparse data that have emerged have focused on global social adjustment or improvement rather than on sexual behavior- specific changes. This study tracked both frequency of problem sexual behaviors and care giver estimates of the propensity to re-offend of six initial clients referred to a treatment-intensive foster care program for sexually reactive children and pre-adolescent sexual offenders. A simple pre-post (basepoint-treatment) design was used, and in-treatment data gathered over a two-year interval are presented. Initial results indicate that the problem sexual behaviors of most of these youthful clients were effectively and immediately suppressed in the context of their treatment intensive foster placements, but that the program's impact on the clients' propensity to re-offend given the opportunity—a crude measure of treatment internalization—was much less immediate, less pronounced, and less predictable across clients. Recommendations based on these data are offered concerning the viability of foster care intervention for sexualized and offending children, as well as optimal durations for such treatments. The strengths and weaknesses of the novel progress tracking method are discussed.     

“I wish someone would explain why I am in care”: The impact of children and young people's lack of understanding of why they are in out‐of‐home care on their well‐being and felt security

Having a good understanding of one's origins and history is known to be significant in identity development. Drawing on a large‐scale online survey of looked after children's subjective well‐being, this paper demonstrates that a significant number of children and young people (age 4–18 years) did not fully understand the reasons for their entry to care. The paper explores the effect of this lack of knowledge on children's well‐being and on their feelings of being settled in their current placement. The study reiterates the need for professionals to be honest and open with children in out‐of‐home care and the need to specifically address, perhaps repeatedly, why a child is not living with their birth family.     

Longitudinal Patterns in Parent and Friend Emotion Socialization: Associations With Adolescent Emotion Regulation

Adolescents learn about emotions through interacting with parents and friends, though there is limited longitudinal research on this topic. This study examined longitudinal patterns in parent and friend emotion socialization and adolescent emotion regulation. Eighty‐seven adolescents reported on parent and friend emotion socialization. Parents reported on adolescent emotion regulation. Parents’ responses were stable over time and across gender. Friends of girls reciprocated negative emotions more and were less punitive over time, whereas friends of boys increased in comforting and decreased in neglect of negative emotions. Parents and friends evidenced unique effects on adolescent emotion regulation, and the effect of friend socialization responses differed for girls and boys. Future research should examine combinatory influences of multiple socializers on adolescent adjustment.     

SORTING OUT THE CUCKOO'S NEST: A FACTORIAL SURVEY APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF POPULAR CONCEPTIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Research relevant to understanding how mental illness is popularly conceptualized owes much to the methods pioneered by Star in 1950. However, while her six vignettes have been used extensively over the last 30 years to test the public's ability to recognize mental illness, subsequent research has provided little insight into which factors contribute most to the judgment process. This study introduces a factorial survey research method that is more appropriate for the task. A sample of 143 college undergraduates responding to the experimentally designed vignettes were found to be most influenced by a vignette person's behavioral impairment, followed by the psychological attributes of depression, obtrusive thoughts, beliefs, conflict, engagement/withdrawal, fear, and anxiety. Other factors that significantly affected mental illness ratings included a vignette person's past history of mental illness and the relationship of the vignette person to the rater. These ten dimensions were found to be considerably more important than sociodemographic characteristics in judging persons mentally ill.     

Issues Related to Time Averaging of Exposure in Modeling Risks Associated with Intermittent Exposures to Lead

Typical exposures to lead often involve a mix of long-term exposures to relatively constant exposure levels (e.g., residential yard soil and indoor dust) and highly intermittent exposures at other locations (e.g., seasonal recreational visits to a park). These types of exposures can be expected to result in blood lead concentrations that vary on a temporal scale with the intermittent exposure pattern. Prediction of short-term (or seasonal) blood lead concentrations arising from highly variable intermittent exposures requires a model that can reliably simulate lead exposures and biokinetics on a temporal scale that matches that of the exposure events of interest. If exposure model averaging times (EMATs) of the model exceed the shortest exposure duration that characterizes the intermittent exposure, uncertainties will be introduced into risk estimates because the exposure concentration used as input to the model must be time averaged to account for the intermittent nature of the exposure. We have used simulation as a means of determining the potential magnitude of these uncertainties. Simulations using models having various EMATs have allowed exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to time averaging of exposures and impact on risk estimates associated with intermittent exposures to lead in soil. The International Commission of Radiological Protection (ICRP) model of lead pharmacokinetics in humans simulates lead intakes that can vary in intensity over time spans as small as one day, allowing for the simulation of intermittent exposures to lead as a series of discrete daily exposure events. The ICRP model was used to compare the outcomes (blood lead concentration) of various time-averaging adjustments for approximating the time-averaged intake of lead associated with various intermittent exposure patterns. Results of these analyses suggest that standard approaches to time averaging (e.g., U.S. EPA) that estimate the long-term daily exposure concentration can, in some cases, result in substantial underprediction of short-term variations in blood lead concentrations when used in models that operate with EMATs exceeding the shortest exposure duration that characterizes the intermittent exposure. Alternative time-averaging approaches recommended for use in lead risk assessment more reliably predict short-term periodic (e.g., seasonal) elevations in blood lead concentration that might result from intermittent exposures. In general, risk estimates will be improved by simulation on shorter time scales that more closely approximate the actual temporal dynamics of the exposure.     

Mentors for adolescents in foster care

Significant numbers of adolescents in foster placement plan to live independently following discharge. Mentoring is increasingly being used as a support service to assist older foster youths to make the transition to adult living. A survey of 29 child welfare programs indicate that a variety of mentoring models are in use. The main models are transitional Life Skills Mentors, Cultural-Empowerment Mentors, and Corporate-Business Mentors. Mentoring connects foster wards with a cross-section of community citizens who provide a bridge to higher education and employment, and serve as a resource for transitional problem-solving. Information is needed on the impacts of mentor-mentee matches and efforts to sustain mentor-mentee relationships.Based on a paper presented at the Second National Child Welfare Conference, Division of Child Welfare Research, Arlington, Virginia, 1994. The research is supported by Research Grant #90CW1026 entitled Mentors as Resources for Preparing Foster Youths for Independent Living, from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Washington, D.C.the Principal Investigator, Foster Youth Project and Adolescent Mentor Project.