Amy Holtan

A comparison of mental health problems in kinship and nonkinship foster care

ObjectiveKnowledge of the emotional and behavioural problems of children in kinship foster care is scarce.No data on such problems in European countries have been published. This study compares child psychiatric problems and placement characteristics of children living in kinship and nonkinship foster care.MethodsA total of 214 children in kinship and nonkinship foster care, aged 4–13, participated in the study. The Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) was completed by their foster parents and demography and placement information was collected.ResultsOf the nonkinship group, 51.8 % scored above the borderline on the CBCL Total Problem score, as did 35.8% of the kinship group. The kinship group had fewer previous placements, were more often fostered within their local community and had more contact with their biological parents. Kinship foster parents had lower social status, in terms of educational level.Variables significantly related to high level of the CBCL Total problems score were male gender and location of foster home outside community of birth family. Positive outcome was significantly associated with placement within the child’s own community, which in turn was related to kinship placement.ConclusionsPlacement in kinship foster care should be considered as a viable possibility.

Kinship Foster Children: Actors in their encounter with the Child Protection System

This article explores foster children’s agency in their encounters with Child Protection Services (CPS). The article draws on semi-structured interviews with former and present foster children aged 18–22, who have grown up in kinship foster homes in state custody. During their childhood, there has been increased emphasis on client participation within CPS. Based on a sociological framework we understand the relationship between CPS and its clients as an asymmetric power relation. The analyses demonstrate that foster children in kinship care are actors with different motivations and competencies for participation and co-determination within CPS. We point out four types of agency, which range from the agent as an equal, active participant in a cooperative relationship with CPS – to the agent as a powerless client in a relationship marked by distrust.

Systematic Review of Kinship Care Effects on Safety, Permanency, and Well-Being Outcomes

Objective: Children in out-of-home placements typically display more educational, behavioral, and psychological problems than do their peers. This systematic review evaluated the effect of kinship care placement compared to foster care placement on the safety, permanency, and well-being of children removed from the home for maltreatment. Methods: Review authors independently read titles and abstracts identified in the searches, selected appropriate studies, assessed the eligibility of each study, evaluated the methodological quality, and extracted outcome data for meta-analysis. Results: Outcome data from the 102 included quasi-experimental studies suggest that, as compared to children in foster care, children in kinship care experience fewer behavioral problems and mental health disorders, better well-being, less placement disruption, fewer mental health services, and similar reunification rates. Conclusions: This review supports the practice of treating kinship care as a viable out-of-home placement option. This conclusion is tempered by methodological and design weaknesses of the included studies.

When emotions count in construction of interview data

This article highlights the significance of a methodology that includes the emotions as an integral element in the construction and analysis of data. The research question is: how can an emotional self-awareness of the researcher on data contribute towards understanding and knowledge. The objective is to display how reflections on the emotions of the researchers provide increased depth of the construction of the data and the topic studied. The empirical data have been obtained from two PhD projects on child and family contact with child protection authorities in Norway. The sampled material derives from situations in the interviews that particularly affected us emotionally and which we reflected on several years after the interviews took place. Through a re-analysis of the interview process, we display how the researchers constructed the data and how we, in the original research, overlooked important questions. Our analytical approach in the original project as in this re-analysis is constructivist interactionism. For the re-analysis, we both draw on the epistemology of emotion and the concept ‘account’. The article contributes to the development of methods by demonstrating how analysis might be made more reflective and transparent by taking the emotions of the researcher into account. The implication for practice is that we recommend a ‘re-consideration’ of data when one is emotionally aroused, and also to engage associates in the analysis.

Children’s relationships with birth parents in childhood and adulthood: A qualitative longitudinal study of kinship care:

The topic of interest in this paper is the relationship between children who live in kinship care and their birth parents – through childhood and adulthood. The focus is on what meaning and content children themselves ascribe to such relationships and how this changes over time. To explore this question, we draw on a qualitative longitudinal data set, in which children who grew up in kinship foster care in Norway were interviewed over a 15-year period. We have selected three cases, where we follow two girls and one boy through their three interviews as children (T1: 11–12 years old), emerging adults (T2: 20–21 years old) and young adults (T3: 28–29 years old). Through the adoption of a methodological approach with similarities to biographical approaches, our analysis gives unique insight into the interviewees’ relationships with their birth parents – how they are expressed in each interview as their lives unfold and as circumstances change. More specifically, the analysis gives insight into different types of parent–child relationships and how they may change over time. However, it also shows that the interviewees have different resources available in managing such relationships. This is an issue rarely recognised in child welfare research or practice, yet it is essential if we want to understand the relationship between children who grow/grew up in foster care arrangements and their birth parents.

The meaning and making of childhoods in kinship care young adults’ narratives

ABSTRACT This article draws on interviews with 26 young adults (15 women and 11 men, aged 19–29) who grew up in long-term kinship care in Norway, and explore how they portray their childhoods. Our starting point is that the foster child status provide cultural and public narratives, images and positions for the young adults to employ when interpreting childhood experiences. The question we ask is how this status is made relevant in the production of childhood narratives. Doing this, we seek to gain insights into how the formal aspect of kinship care can influence on childhood understandings. Based on how childhood experiences are (re)constructed and how the young adults position themselves and their foster parents in their narratives, we have constructed four ways of portraying childhoods in kinship care, as: normal, supported, struggling and neglected. The article clarifies the criteria for constructing the different types of childhood, and discusses how the foster child status is made relevant in each type.

Do frequency of visits with birth parents impact children’s mental health and parental stress in stable foster care settings

Abstract This article explores whether the number of visits by birth parents influence perceptions of attachment, children’s competence and mental health, and stress levels in foster parents. Foster parents acted as informants regarding 203 children living in kinship and non-kinship foster care. The children were young when placed in foster care, on average 2.3 years old (SD = 1.0) and had been living in the foster home for sometime at assessment, 5.4 years (SD = 3.0). Information were collected using validated instruments. The results showed that 47% of the children had monthly or more frequent visits with their mothers, whereas 21% of the fathers had visits this often. Visitations with birth parents did not significantly influence who was the main attachment figure or foster parental attachment relationships, the children’s psychosocial functioning or competence, or stress levels among the foster parents. These findings could indicate that social workers should emphasize the quality and short- and long-term consequences of visits for children when making decisions regarding the frequency of visits with birth parents. This could be done taking the child’s reactions and wishes into account, when evaluating the visit and the frequency of future visits. It is important that decisions concerning visits should be continuously revised in both the short- and the long term, since both wishes and practical aspects may change for all parties involved.

Parenting stress among Norwegian kinship and non-kinship foster parents

Abstract There are several studies conducted on parenting stress, and the conclusion in the parenting stress research literature is generally that parenting stress decreases the quality of the parent-child relationship. There are however few studies on parenting stress comparing kinship homes to ordinary types of foster homes. The aims of this study were to measure parenting stress in kinship and non-kinship foster homes and to explore factors that predict parenting stress related to the child and to their role as foster parents. Results show that kinship-foster parents experienced higher stress related to the parent domain i.e. depression and relationship problems with the spouse. This was associated with kinship foster parents being of older age and receiving fewer social support services. Non-kinship foster parents experienced higher parenting stress related to the child domain i.e. child’s acceptability and adaptability in the family. This was associated with children in non-kinship foster homes having higher internalising and externalising mental health problems. The implications are that different types of support are needed for kinship foster parents and non-kinship foster parents. More differentiated support for foster parents may help prevent parenting problems and increase placement permanency.

Family group conferences: from Maori culture to decision-making model in work with late modern families in Norway

Models and methods within social work and child protection services are disseminated across cultural and national borders. The family group conference (FGC), with its origins in traditional Maori culture, is one example of this. The application of this model presupposes an ‘extended family’. Based on sociological theory, we highlight and problematise the explicit inattention to relevant cultural differences. The assumed existence of the extended family is implied in the direct translation of the term. The family in late modern society is often described as diversified, elective and shifting. We argue that FGC is relevant to such families. In our conclusion, we point out that despite changes, the family remains associated with traditional family values as solidarity and joint obligations, responsibilities and continuity. FGC vitalise traditional family values and facilitate for modern families performing traditional family practices. From our exploration of discourses and analyses on how FGC may be transformed from supporting Maori traditional culture to become a decision model in a CPS of a society such as Norway, we find there is a compliance with two fundamental factors: the late modern familys negotiating practices and the revitalisation of traditional family values.