Attachment theory refers to the immense body of knowledge developed over the past 30 years about the importance of close relationships in early life and the impact of these on the individual's emotional and social development. Attachment behaviours are activated in the young child when he or she feels frightened or upset, and are aimed at getting close proximity with the primary caregiver in order to regain a state of security. However, the ways in which the caregiver responds to these emotional needs will in turn influence the way in which the child approaches the attachment figure in order to gain some sense of security. Attachment theory proposes that it is in the context of close relationships that the capacity for emotional regulation is developed, and where the child can begin to build up a sense of self, a sense of other and of what can be expected of relationships. But what happens when primary caregivers do not respond to their children's need for security? What is the impact of abuse and neglect over the child's cognitive, emotional and social development? Are these children still 'attached' to their caregivers, and if so, in what way?This book by Howe and colleagues aims at providing social workers with the basic concepts to understand dysfunctional families and individuals from the point of view of attachment theory. The authors make a good case for considering this perspective whilst thinking about foster care and family support. In this sense, the book focuses on the role of practitioners in trying to prevent further trans-generational transmission of insecure attachment styles and abuse.The first half of the book gives an excellent overview of attachment theory, including the basic concepts and attachment patterns across the lifespan, with special emphasis on high-risk psychosocial environments. In this section, the authors carefully bring together important findings from research and rich clinical descriptions, in a very interesting and accessible manner. It is a shame, however, that the work of Daniel Stern on infants' psychosocial development is missing. The second half of the book is dedicated to the possible application of attachment theory to practice. The authors propose that social workers should use key aspects of research instruments such as the 'Strange Situation' and the 'Adult Attachment Interview' (AAI) to assess attachment patterns and family dysfunctions, and on this basis plan their interventions.Although the reader may find this approach very appealing, it is not without great controversy. On the one hand, attachment researchers would argue that these instruments are designed to be used in highly controlled situations and Book reviews 71

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of children growing up in long-term foster family care. It focuses attention on the challenges for foster carers in providing a secure base for foster children in middle childhood and early adolescence, who have come predominantly from backgrounds of abuse, neglect, and psychosocial adversity. Separation and loss in the children's lives, often through multiple placements, increase the likelihood of difficulties across a range of development. These children tend to be wary, distrustful, and controlling when they enter foster placements, but need from their carers many of the caregiving qualities most commonly described as providing a secure base in infancy. This study describes a model of parenting which uses four caregiving dimensions that are consistent with attachment theory and research: promoting trust in availability, promoting reflective function, promoting self-esteem, and promoting autonomy. A fifth dimension, promoting family membership, is added, as it reflects the need for children in long-term foster family care to experience the security that comes from a sense of identity and belonging. Qualitative data from the study demonstrates the usefulness of this model as a framework for analysis, but also suggests the potential use of such a framework for working with and supporting foster carers.

Anglia. She has a special research interest in family placement and has published widely on foster-care, attachment and permanence. Bente Moldestad is a clinical social worker and a researcher in 'The Norwegian Longitudinal Study on Out-of-Home Care' in the Child Protection Unit, Uni Research, University of Bergen. She has published a range of articles on parents of children in foster care and kinship care. Dr Ingrid Höjer is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg. Her main research interest is child welfare, with a focus on foster care, including foster families, sons and daughters of foster carers and parents of children in foster care. She has published widely in these areas. Her recent research is on young people leaving care. Dr Emma Ward is a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Research on the Child and Family, University of East Anglia. She has worked on a range of projects including studies of prospective adoptive parents, permanence in foster care and parents of children in foster-care. Her current research is on looked after children and offending. Dag Skilbred is a child welfare worker with main interests in interactive competence, parent counselling and inter-agency work, and has published in these areas. He is now working in the project 'Screening of Children within Child Welfare Service-Inter-Agency Work on Assessments and Services' at the Child Protection Unit, Uni Research, University of Bergen. Julie Young is a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Research on the Child and Family, University of East Anglia. She has been involved in studies of adoption, the influence of post-adoption contact on all parties, the adjustment of birth relatives to the adoption of their children, fostering and child protection. Dr Toril Havik is a specialist in clinical child psychology and Head of Research at the Child Protection Unit, Uni Research, University of Bergen. She leads the research programme 'The Norwegian Longitudinal Study of Out-of-Home Care' and has published widely on varied aspects of foster care.

As the UK Government White Paper, Care Matters: Time for Change, suggested, foster children need the care system to provide them with good quality foster family care that will help them through childhood to success and fulfilment of their potential in adult life. This paper draws on the third phase of Growing Up in Foster Care, a longitudinal study of 52 children in planned, long‐term foster care (1997–2006). It aims to increase our understanding of the transformational power of foster family relationships over time and particularly in adolescence. It shows how a secure base parenting model, using concepts from attachment and resilience, can be applied to foster care of adolescents. The paper uses case material to demonstrate each dimension of this secure base model and to emphasise how, even when adolescents have had stable and effective placements, they are likely to need support through into adulthood.

The concept of resilience provides a necessary framework for understanding the varied ways in which some children do well in the face of adversity. The debate on resilience in children has shifted from an emphasis on factors to an emphasis on processes and mechanisms and from identifying resilience to promoting resilience. Children in longterm foster-care have experienced a range of early adversities which continue to affect their self-esteem, self-efficacy and capacity to cope with developmental challenges. Risk and protective characteristics in the foster-child, the foster-carers, the birth family and the agencies involved with the child will interact in complex ways to produce upward or downward spirals. This article reports on a longitudinal study of children in long-term foster-care, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. It provides a psychosocial model that links inner and outer worlds, developmental theory and social work practice, to explore why some children appear to be making good progress while others continue to experience multiple developmental difficulties.

Long‐term foster care has been a much neglected area of social work practice and research. Yet there are obvious challenges that need to be understood when building a family for life in foster care. Is it possible for foster families, where there are no biological or legal ties between carers and children, to provide care, concern and family membership not only through childhood but also into adult life? The study on which this paper is based set out to explore that question by investigating the experiences of 40 adults, aged 18–30, who grew up in foster families. Qualitative interviews were conducted, transcribed and analysed. Theoretical frameworks from attachment and resilience were brought together with concepts such as ‘belonging’ and ‘family membership’ to make sense of the narratives provided. An integrated and dynamic psychosocial model of long‐term foster care was developed, which emphasizes the significance of a secure base and has some important implications for practice.

In the literature on work–family balance, role and boundary issues are commonly discussed in relation to parents who work outside of the home. Work and family are considered as two different spheres of activity, with different role identities and cultural meanings. For foster carers, however, in very significant ways, their family is their work and their work is their family – so roles are not so clearly separated and boundaries are not so clearly defined. This paper reviews theoretical approaches to the work–family interface and draws on qualitative data from 40 interviews with long‐term foster carers. It provides an analysis of their accounts of their roles as professional carers and/or committed parents to explore how they manage different and potentially contradictory role identities. The study found that foster carers primarily identified as carers or as parents, but that some foster carers could move flexibly between these roles while others could not. For foster carers who could be flexible, the two roles enriched each other rather than causing stress and role conflict. Implications for supporting professional foster carers who can also meet the parenting needs of long‐term foster children are discussed.

Context'Growing up in foster care' is a longitudinal study, this first phase of which has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation. It is a study of 58 children under the age of 12 in new or previously short-term placements which are now planned to be long-term foster placements.Long-term foster care is one of the best kept secrets of the child care system. It didn't feature in the Children Act 1989 and is not recognised by the LAC materials as a plan. Yet for a small but significant group of vulnerable, older looked after children, for whom return home or adoption is not achievable or not seen as in their best interests, a foster placement may be the only chance they will have of a stable and secure family life. It was for this reason that we felt there was a need to focus on these children and examine current practice in a number of important respects.We are using attachment theory as a way of making sense of what the children bring to the placements from their experiences of caregiving in the birth family and previous placements, and what then happens as relationships develop in the new foster families. We are particularly interested in different insecure patterns and the links with experiences of abuse and neglect. In this respect our project has been part of the range of work based on attachment theory at the University of East Anglia, led by Professor David Howe. (For more details of this theoretical underpinning, see Howe, Brandon, Hinings and Schofield, Attachment Theory: Child maltreatment and family support, Macmillan, 1999.) Aims• To explore how the needs of looked after children can be identified and met in long-term foster families provided by the local authority;• To explore the nature of parenting which appears to be associated with more successful outcomes for children in longterm foster care;• To understand the role of birth families when children are in long-term foster care;• To define what forms of assistance and support from local authority social workers are needed by children, by longterm foster carers and by birth families in order to sustain a successful long-term foster placement.