Contact between birth parents and children in kinship care in a sample from Spain

Abstract

Within the context of kinship care, the main objectives of this work are to study the characteristics of contact between foster children and their birth parents, and their relationship with key variables of fostering, the children and their kinship caregivers. The sample included 189 children from Spain and their kinship families. A semi‐structured placement interview and two scales relating to the child–caregiver relationship and child's psychological adjustment were used with the kinship families. The results revealed a significant percentage of foster children who had no family contact. Various visit types, frequencies and durations were described. Kinship care with contact, compared with placements without contact, was frequently characterized by the absence of professional supervision, and an affectionate child–caregiver relationship; moreover, children with contact were perceived to have fewer serious behaviour and socio‐emotional problems and a greater probability of family reunification. The regression analysis showed that the main predictors for how caregivers assessed contact were the children's emotional reaction during visits and the quality of the relationship between the kinship families and the birth parents. These results suggest the need for further research about contact, which will certainly have a major impact on professional intervention with these families.

A heavy weight, yet empowering: Grandparent Special Guardians’ lived experiences of the role and family dynamics - An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)

“…As Special Guardians are often grandparents, this can create a difficult dynamic by facilitating contact between their grandchild and their own child. While maintaining relationships through contact may have benefits for children, such as promoting feelings of belonging and building the child’s identity (León, Jiménez‐Morago and Muñoz‐Silva, 2016), challenges may arise from the relationship between the children’s parent(s) and grandparent caregivers, and conflict around the practicalities of contact (Kiraly and Humphreys, 2013; 2015). In some cases, such conflict has resulted in violence towards the caregiver from the parent(s) (Breman, 2014; Breman, MacRae and Vicary, 2018).…”

Socioeconomic deprivation and social capital in kinship carers using a helpline service

“…Contact with biological parents was reported as a risk across the sample. Continued contact with biological parents in kinship care is encouraged, associated with greater understanding of a child's personal background, enhanced well‐being, sense of belonging, identity and social support (Dubowitz et al, 1994; León, Jiménez‐Morago, & Muñoz‐Silva, 2017; McWey & Mullis, 2004; Messing, 2006). However, our findings align with research on the potentially problematic nature of contact relating to unpredictability, unsupervised visits and unplanned encounters (Kiraly & Humphreys, 2013; Selwyn et al, 2013), highlighting the need for support for kinship carers to preserve birth family relations.…”

Parenting during a child's placement: A systemic perspective on parental commitment

“…For instance, placement in a foster-to-adopt family might lead to an ambiguous parenting role (Ouellette & Goubau, 2009), which could then impact the parents' feelings of entitlement and their level of involvement in the child's life (Lacharité, 2015). On the other hand, kinship care could contribute to nurturing parenting skills (Le on et al, 2017) while exerting a positive influence on the coparenting relationship (Linares et al, 2010). Nevertheless, kinship care can also raise challenges for parents and kinship caregivers, such as navigating through conflicts and triangulation (Chateauneuf et al, 2018;Linares et al, 2010), which can jeopardize the quality of the coparenting relationship (Vanschoonlandt et al, 2012).…”

“…The coparenting relationship refers to the bidirectional partnership that forms between birth and foster parents when children are placed (Chateauneuf et al, 2018). The quality of the coparenting relationship could act as a protective factor on birth parents' parenting role during placement (Le on et al, 2017). Chapon (2018) described four possible scenarios: (a) shared substitution, where the parents and foster parents share responsibilities and become partners in parenthood; (b) substitution, where the foster parents consider the child as their own, implicitly replacing the birth parents, thereby setting up a hierarchy of parenting roles; (c) supportive substitution, where foster caregivers offer temporary support as parents pursue on claiming their parenting role; and (d) uncertain substitution, where foster caregivers and parents seem disinvested and the child has very little affective support.…”