Emotional intelligence and coping with stress in foster parents

Although much research on emotional intelligence (EI) and coping with stress has been performed in recent years, little is known about these dimensions of individual differences in both foster and biological parents. The main purpose of this study is to examine emotional intelligence and coping styles in foster parents in comparison to biological parents. The study included 124 individual participants aged between 30 and 64 years old (M = 45.18, SD = 8.72), including foster parents (n = 63, 50.81%) and biological parents (n = 61, 49.19%). The cross-sectional survey study was conducted using the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). In comparison to biological parents, foster parents demonstrated significantly higher levels of emotional intelligence (EI), more frequently used task-oriented coping styles, and less often pursued emotional and avoidant coping strategies to deal with stress. EI was positively correlated with task-oriented coping and negatively so with emotional coping. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that EI was a strong predictor of task-oriented coping. Training focused on the enhancement of both EI and coping with stress should be considered as an effective way to improve parents’ competence.

Article 25: The Right to Periodic Review of Treatment and All Other Circumstances of Placement

Abstract‘More in-depth screening process for foster parents to ensure the housing placement will be safe before the follow-up.’ (Western Europe/Other)

Sijaisvanhemmuus nyky-Venäjällä - työtä vai rakkautta?

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan hoivan käsitteen kautta sijaisvanhemmuuden ammatillistumista Venäjällä meneillään olevan lastensuojelun sijaishuollon uudistamisen kontekstissa. Analysoimme, kuinka lapsikylässä asuvat sijaisvanhemmat näkevät ja määrittelevät oman roolinsa ja toimintansa tarkoituksen pohjaten viidessä eri venäläisessä lapsikylässä sijaisvanhempien parissa toteutettuihin fokusryhmäkeskusteluihin ja teemahaastatteluihin. Sijaisvanhemmuus ymmärretään dikotomisesti joko rakkautena tai työnä. Käsitys hoivasta rakkautena ymmärretään moraalisena velvollisuutena ja eettisenä arvona. Tällöin kiistetään mahdollisuus hoivan virallistamiseen ja sen alistamiseen säännöille ja byrokratian ja markkinavoimien sanelulle. Hoivan määritteleminen työnä puolestaan tekee sijaisvanhemmille mahdolliseksi rationalisoida omaa toimintaansa ja problematisoida sijaisvanhemmuuden statusta yhteiskunnassa. Tällöin sijaisvanhemmuuden ammatillistuminen nähdään ratkaisuna lukuisille ongelmille, joihin sijaisvanhemmat törmäävät, ja sijaisperheissä tapahtuvan hoivan aseman parantamisena. Foster parenting in contemporary Russia - work or love? The article explores the professionalisation of foster parenting in the context of the ongoing child welfare and so-called alternative care reforms in Russia through the concept of ‘care’. We analyse how foster parents who live in children’s villages see and define their role and the meaning of their activity based on focus group and thematic interviews with foster parents in five children’s villages in Russia. Foster parenting is understood through a dichotomy of ‘love’ and ‘work’. Seeing foster parenting as love is based on an understanding of it as a moral obligation and ethical value. In such a case, it becomes impossible to consider care as something official that exists under regulation and is led by bureaucratic and market principles. Understanding care as work, in turn, makes it possible for foster parents to rationalise their own activity and problematise their status in Russian society. In this case, the professionalisation of foster parenting is seen as a solution to multiple problems that foster parents face, and to the improvement of the status of this type of care more generally.

NEW PROGRAM OF FAMILIES PREPARING FOR CARE AND EDUCATION OF FOSTERED / ADOPTED CHILDREN

The urgency of developing an alternative program for training candidates for family uniforms and child custody is justified by the need to: accelerate the process of training such candidates in case of difficulties in completing study groups; to acquaint participants with all forms of family upbringing, adoption, childcare services in order to make further conscious choices about the form that is most acceptable for candidates and to which they are most prepared; save resources needed to prepare candidates to avoid duplication of common learning topics. The purpose of the article is to reveal the features of such a combined program and prove its effectiveness. Research methods applied: analysis of scientific literature on the topic of research, observation, survey of candidates for family education and foster carers. The combined modular program is a new normative document that outlines the range of knowledge, skills and abilities to be acquired by candidates for foster parents, foster parents, guardians / trustees, adoptive parents, foster carers for quality care and upbringing of foster / adopted children. The peculiarity of the Program is that it contains joint classes of candidates for foster parents, foster parents, guardians / trustees, adoptive parents, foster carers, and specialized classes for individual groups of participants. The program focuses on the formation of the competence of foster parents, foster parents, guardians/custodians, adoptive parents, foster parents to protect the rights of the child, establishing effective communication with the child and his biological or potential parents, finding the most effective forms and methods of influencing emotional state child, behavior, its correction, rehabilitation. Its total duration of implementation is 13 days, of which: 7 days - joint classes for all participants. The program is implemented in the format of trainings. Conclusions on the effectiveness of the program were made based on the results of a survey of participants (candidates for family education) during 2020-2021 in the Ternopil region on the experimental program.

Permanence

This chapter considers how far the Barnardos adoptees achieved legal, residential and emotional permanence after adoption. It draws on minimal follow-up data, available for 124 adoptees (59% of the original cohort); extensive data collected through responses to an online survey concerning 93 adoptees (44% of the cohort) 5–37 years after placement; and interviews focusing on 24 adult adoptees. Ages at follow-up ranged from 5 to 44. All adoptees had achieved legal permanence. Many had achieved residential permanence after numerous placements in care: 34% of those aged 18 or over were still living with their adoptive parents. Twelve (13%) placements had disrupted, but all except eight (9%) adoptees had achieved psychological permanence. Relationships between adoptees and adoptive parents were twice as likely to persist as those between care leavers and foster parents.

Fostering in a Carefare Regime

This chapter is about foster parents and their work. Recent changes in the regulation of foster care illustrate the formation and operation of a carefare regime: the transformation of state policies and services and the integration of foster parents into the “deserving” female working and caring underclass. Relying on two years of participant observations and interviews with foster parents, experts, guardians, social workers and foster parent agency personnel, I describe the highly skilled care work most foster parents provide in demanding circumstances for a practically endless number of work hours. I explain how their status has been transformed from being volunteers to being contracted employees who work in increasingly precarious circumstances for extremely low wages. I argue that sentimentalization of care work is used by policy makers to discipline foster mothers into accepting the new terms of their relationship and by foster parents too to rationalize their compliance.

Foster parents' understanding of the foster child's perspective: Does it matter and can it be changed?

<p>Socio-emotional outcomes for children placed in care are more positive when foster parents have a secure state of mind regarding attachment and are able to think about the child’s unique psychological perspective (Dozier, Stovall, Albus & Bates, 2001; Schofield & Beek, 2005a). One aspect of parents’ thinking about the child has been conceptualised as mind-mindedness (Meins, 1998) and is measured by the proportion of mind-related comments made when a parent is asked to describe their child. The first study examines whether foster parent’s mind-mindedness and attachment perceptions, amongst other child and foster parent characteristics, are positively associated with the foster parent-child relationship and the child’s emotional and behavioural outcomes. The study found that foster parents with higher mind-mindedness had foster children with fewer behaviour problems and this relationship was enhanced by foster parents having positive attachment perceptions. Moreover, foster parent mind-mindedness was not related to the quality of the parent-child relationship, except when parents had positive attachment perceptions. Regarding the child’s placement characteristics, the number of previous placements the child had experienced predicted the child’s emotional and behaviour problems and the age at which the child was placed predicted the quality of the foster parent-child relationship. The best placement predictors of both outcome variables considered together were the age at which the child was placed and short term placements. Drawing on attachment theory, and guided by the findings of study one, the author developed a a training programme and a Relational Learning Framework (RLF) to assist foster parents and foster care practitioners to understand the child’s psychological perspective. The second study employed a multiple- baseline design to evaluate the effectiveness of the RLF guided training programme. Statistically significant improvements were found regarding parents’ reports of children’s behaviour problems, parents’ daily stress, the attachment relationship and children’s overall functioning at post-test. However, at follow-up, only the children’s overall functioning remained significantly improved, although increases in positive mind-mindedness became statistically significant, relative to post-test. Some foster parents showed decreases in wellbeing scores, relative to their scores at pre- and post-test. The third study used a pre- post-test design to evaluate the effectiveness of the training programme to assist foster care practitioners to apply the RLF in their clinical practice and to deliver the training programme to foster parents. At post-test, practitioners’ empathy and reflectiveness showed a statistically significant increase but no statistically significant increases were found in practitioners’ mind-mindedness. The training was rated highly by participants and a thematic analysis of diary entries showed that they used the RLF in their practice, were able to help foster parents understand the child’s perspective, and reported positive therapeutic gains from utilising these techniques. The research provides preliminary evidence that foster parent mind-mindedness, in conjunction with attachment perceptions, is associated with the child’s emotional and behaviour problems and the foster parent-child relationship. The results from the intervention study with foster parents showed initially promising gains, which were not maintained at follow-up, and the results from the foster care practitioners study indicated improvements in practitioners’ empathy and reflectiveness, as well as positive outcomes of using the training material.</p>

Foster parents' understanding of the foster child's perspective: Does it matter and can it be changed?

<p>Socio-emotional outcomes for children placed in care are more positive when foster parents have a secure state of mind regarding attachment and are able to think about the child’s unique psychological perspective (Dozier, Stovall, Albus & Bates, 2001; Schofield & Beek, 2005a). One aspect of parents’ thinking about the child has been conceptualised as mind-mindedness (Meins, 1998) and is measured by the proportion of mind-related comments made when a parent is asked to describe their child. The first study examines whether foster parent’s mind-mindedness and attachment perceptions, amongst other child and foster parent characteristics, are positively associated with the foster parent-child relationship and the child’s emotional and behavioural outcomes. The study found that foster parents with higher mind-mindedness had foster children with fewer behaviour problems and this relationship was enhanced by foster parents having positive attachment perceptions. Moreover, foster parent mind-mindedness was not related to the quality of the parent-child relationship, except when parents had positive attachment perceptions. Regarding the child’s placement characteristics, the number of previous placements the child had experienced predicted the child’s emotional and behaviour problems and the age at which the child was placed predicted the quality of the foster parent-child relationship. The best placement predictors of both outcome variables considered together were the age at which the child was placed and short term placements. Drawing on attachment theory, and guided by the findings of study one, the author developed a a training programme and a Relational Learning Framework (RLF) to assist foster parents and foster care practitioners to understand the child’s psychological perspective. The second study employed a multiple- baseline design to evaluate the effectiveness of the RLF guided training programme. Statistically significant improvements were found regarding parents’ reports of children’s behaviour problems, parents’ daily stress, the attachment relationship and children’s overall functioning at post-test. However, at follow-up, only the children’s overall functioning remained significantly improved, although increases in positive mind-mindedness became statistically significant, relative to post-test. Some foster parents showed decreases in wellbeing scores, relative to their scores at pre- and post-test. The third study used a pre- post-test design to evaluate the effectiveness of the training programme to assist foster care practitioners to apply the RLF in their clinical practice and to deliver the training programme to foster parents. At post-test, practitioners’ empathy and reflectiveness showed a statistically significant increase but no statistically significant increases were found in practitioners’ mind-mindedness. The training was rated highly by participants and a thematic analysis of diary entries showed that they used the RLF in their practice, were able to help foster parents understand the child’s perspective, and reported positive therapeutic gains from utilising these techniques. The research provides preliminary evidence that foster parent mind-mindedness, in conjunction with attachment perceptions, is associated with the child’s emotional and behaviour problems and the foster parent-child relationship. The results from the intervention study with foster parents showed initially promising gains, which were not maintained at follow-up, and the results from the foster care practitioners study indicated improvements in practitioners’ empathy and reflectiveness, as well as positive outcomes of using the training material.</p>

Sole guardianship for permanent caregivers

<p>This dissertation analyses whether permanent caregivers should be given sole guardianship responsibilities. It shows that the current legal regulations are not sufficient to secure the placement of a child with foster parents on a permanent basis. Therefore, it examines not only the Care of Children Act 2004 and the Children, Young Persons, and Their Children Act 1989, but also the Green Paper for Vulnerable Children as well as the White Paper for Vulnerable Children, launched in October 2012 by the Ministry of Social Development. The White Paper contains a suggestion to limit parental rights in order to secure the “Home for Life” policy, but fails to discuss the proposed amendments in depth and does not set out detailed provisions. In order to fill the gap in the present debate, this dissertation contains recommendations to amend the current legal provisions.</p>