Renee Thørnblad

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.

Kinship care or upbringing by relatives? The need for ‘new’ understandings in research

ABSTRACT This article addresses knowledge production on formal kinship foster care. In spite of growing interest in this phenomenon, little attention has been paid to how kinship care should be understood in research – as a service under child protective services or as upbringing by relatives. Each of these understandings leads to different research questions and creates guidelines for what falls into or outwith the focus of research. In kinship care research, this phenomenon has primarily been studied as a service. Research that seeks to evaluate the effect of kinship care compared to non-kinship care is used as a case to discuss the implications for the type of knowledge that researchers produce. While we acknowledge the importance of this research, we demonstrate the many challenges it involves and why this should not be the primary focus in kinship care research. On the background of these limitations, we argue in favour of approaching kinship care as upbringing by relatives – as ways in which family life can be organised and structured. This can lead to relevant knowledge that will enable us to obtain a better understanding of what kinship care is and involves.

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.

The Involvement of Children in the Process of Mandatory Family Mediation

Mediation is mandatory for all separated divorcing/separating spouses and co-habiting partners in Norway with children under the age of 16. A mediation model called “Children in Mediation” (Barn i mekling, known as BIM) systematically includes children in the mediation process. In the article, we address two key issues based on statements from children to their parents as well as questionnaires completed by mediators and children in 250 mediations. Our first focus is on how the children’s actorship is expressed in the mediation context. We show that when given the opportunity, children largely choose to speak up, and we present some examples of their statements. We thematise the contradictory considerations of participation and children’s right to protection and assert that children’s potential vulnerability cannot, in general, justify preventing them from participation. Our second focus is on children’s experiences of their own participation and their general views on the inclusion of children in mandatory mediation and relationship breakdowns. In this analysis, we include how the level of conflict and problem accumulation in the family impacts the children’s decision-making about whether to participate or not. In the absolute majority of cases, children have positive experiences of their participation and encourage other children to participate. These assessments were made regardless of the level of conflict and degree of problem accumulation in the family.

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.