Placement Moves of Foster Children as Perceived by Foster Parents Residing in Urban and Semi-Urban Communities

Abstract

Placement instability is a concern in foster care. Understanding foster parents' perceptions of the children's move experiences within their homes is important to developing policy and practices that aid foster families and children through these difficult transitions. A sample of 105 foster parents randomly selected from a statewide list responded to a cross-sectional survey that was designed to explore: (1) the nature of placement moves in foster homes over a 2-year period, (2) foster parents' perceptions of children's emotions during placement transitions, and (3) parents' perceived impact of placement moves on their own lives. Foster parents are negatively affected when foster children move out of their homes, and their perspective of the move transition is likely different from the viewpoint of foster children. KEYWORDS foster care, placement moves, foster parents' perceptionsThe significance of foster parents in the lives of foster children enables them to influence the meaning that children attribute to placement move experiences. Though foster children have contact with caseworkers and other professionals during the placement change process, the onus is on foster parents to create a familial sense of safety and welcoming when children

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

“…In the current study, 22% of the mind-related comments were negative, compared to only 12% in a community sample (Demers et al, 2010b). More negative mind-related comments might be expected regarding children in foster care, as negative mind-mindedness is coded for emotions such as sad, anxious, worried and angry, and these emotions are likely to be higher in foster children, due to past experiences of loss (Unrau, Font, & Murphy, 2011, Unrau, et al, 2008. It is interesting, then, that negative mind-mindedness did predict emotional and behaviour problems and this finding does not support the view that negative comments may be an indicator of the parent having a balanced view of the child.…”

“…This finding is contrary to two studies which have investigated this link found no significant relationship between attachment security and the number of previous placements (Altenhofen et al, 2013;Joseph et al, 2013), although this may be due to low numbers of placement changes in both studies. It is possible that the relationship between the child's previous placements and the foster parent-child relationship might be affected by foster children's feelings of insecurity, fearfulness and anger when moving placements and social withdrawal as a consequence of experiencing many losses (Unrau, et al, 2011, Unrau et al, 2008.…”

“…The second is that factors reflecting placement instability (more previous placements, short term placements) were associated with both the child's emotional and behaviour problems and the quality of the parent-child relationship. This finding may be explained by a number of considerations -the child's loss of trust, grief, and fear for the future (Unrau et al, 2008, Unrau et al, 2011 and the severing of social connections (Ryan & Testa, 2005). Foster parents may have incrementally less influence over the child's behaviour problems, when bonds with biological parents and previous foster parents have been severed more often.…”

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

“…In the current study, 22% of the mind-related comments were negative, compared to only 12% in a community sample (Demers et al, 2010b). More negative mind-related comments might be expected regarding children in foster care, as negative mind-mindedness is coded for emotions such as sad, anxious, worried and angry, and these emotions are likely to be higher in foster children, due to past experiences of loss (Unrau, Font, & Murphy, 2011, Unrau, et al, 2008. It is interesting, then, that negative mind-mindedness did predict emotional and behaviour problems and this finding does not support the view that negative comments may be an indicator of the parent having a balanced view of the child.…”

The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii 2020 Official Conference Proceedings

“…Negative expectations for children have the power to generate corresponding negative behaviors (Allen, Chango, & Szwedo, 2014;Kools, 1997;Loeb, Hessel, & Allen, 2016). As children cope with early trauma (Unrau, Font, & Murphy, 2011), their coping strategies may be perceived as a confirmation of pre-conceived negative expectations by the important adults who are present in their lives to keep them safe from harm. This implicit bias can permeate every aspect of development and repeated doses from across these environments can contribute to a self-fulfilling prophecy of negative outcomes.…”