Adoption & Fostering

Rhona Pollock

Scotland

苏格兰

The profound and lasting impact of losing a child to adoption or foster care has been powerfully described, and the importance of offering therapeutic support to birth relatives is a requirement in most parts of the UK. However, little is known about effective counselling for this group. In this article, we report on the experiences of four counsellors and a project worker who offer counselling to birth relatives whose children have been removed following care proceedings. We present their reflections under four themes, namely: ‘It’s all about the person, it’s all about the relationship’; ‘Meeting clients where they are’; ‘Having a sense of achievement’; and ‘This work can really get into you’. These accounts offer valuable reflections for others offering counselling to birth relatives and their supervisors, as well as those who commission and design these services.

Lizette Nolte

Caoimhe Forbes

Building relational trust and hope: The experiences of counsellors in a service for birth relatives whose children have been adopted or taken into care

建立关系信任与希望：咨询师在为子女被收养或被照顾的亲生亲属提供服务中的经验

Children in care have consistently lower educational attainment than peers who live with their birth families. However, metrics often define ‘education’ narrowly, focusing on traditional in-school achievements with which this population typically struggles. In this study, interviews with current and former children in care ( n = 7, ages: 11–59) revealed that they perceive education in a much broader way, occurring across their life experiences and encompassing both life and social skills. Regardless of their performance in school, participants storied themselves as achievers in the context of this broader concept of ‘education’ and described positive outcomes such as independence, agency, development of authentic identities and capacity to strive for and achieve goals. These reflections have implications for the provision of social support services and the evaluation of outcomes for children who are taken into the care of the state. For example, it may be valuable to redefine ‘education’ to include a wider range of activities and to therefore encompass a variety of potential interventions to support development and success. Additionally, there seems to be scope for working more closely with children in care when making decisions, centring their lived experiences and drawing on their insights so as to achieve a better balance of support for both formal and informal educational opportunities.

Karen Kenny

The educational experiences of children in care across five decades: A new perspective on the education of looked after children in the UK

过去五十年中被照顾儿童的教育经历：英国被照顾儿童教育的新视角

Evidence suggests that looked after children and care leavers start to use alcohol earlier than their peers and at higher levels. Much of this epidemiological research focuses upon a pathological vulnerability within the young people concerned, but qualitative research which elicits their experiences with alcohol enables a more nuanced understanding. This article explores the experiences and reflections of young people in care regarding their exposure to and use of alcohol. Twenty qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with young people who were members of Children in Care Councils (CiCCs) across the North East of England, and a socio-ecological model was used to guide data analysis. The findings suggest that experience prior to being in care, such as witnessing the detrimental effects of alcohol misuse and transitions within the care system, can both precipitate and deter an individual’s use, particularly when entering and living in residential care. The study highlights how a mixture of social and contextual factors influence young people in care’s perceptions and use of alcohol.

Hayley Alderson

Raghu Lingam

Rebecca Brown

Ruth McGovern

Care-experienced young people’s reflections on their relationship to and use of alcohol: A qualitative exploration

有照护经历的年轻人对自身与酒精关系及使用情况的反思：一项定性探究

Cultural misunderstandings, systemic barriers, restrictive policies, inconsistent and subjective views around standards and requirements have prevented families from minoritised ethnic backgrounds from successfully adopting. Such barriers have led to a reluctance to adopt and a lack of trust in the adoption system. In this article, the author argues that these barriers arise from cognitive bias which affects decision-making in adoption. The BRAC 2 eD model for de-biasing is introduced to support adoption assessments of individuals and families from minoritised ethnic groups. It recognises that the process of assessing prospective adopters is complex and offers strategies to de-bias. In this model, social workers are encouraged to acknowledge the existence of bias, engage in de-biasing nudges, internal conversations and reflexive processes that support challenging bias, utilise cognitive resources towards de-biasing, and change and determine proportionate decisions. The contention for appropriate language around Black, Asian, Mixed ethnic and Other minoritised groups is acknowledged. The author uses ‘minoritised ethnic groups’ as a preferred term based on her own identity, however she appreciates that those referred to may have their own preferred terms. With that in mind, social workers must understand cultural and sub-cultural differences and preferences without homogenising the people they work with.

Tam Cane

BRAC<sup>2</sup>eD model: An approach to de-bias decision-making in adoption assessments with prospective adopters from minoritised ethnic groups

BRAC<sup>2</sup>eD模型：一种减少少数族裔潜在收养者在收养评估中决策偏差的方法

Theraplay® is a relationship-focused intervention based upon attachment theory that involves both adult and child. There is a growing evidence base for Theraplay® as an intervention with children and families although empirical research on its use with adoptive families is currently in its infancy. This research provides an understanding of the reasons for choosing Theraplay® as a support for adoptive families, how the intervention was implemented within a Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) and explores the views of adoptive parents and professionals regarding its effectiveness. The research design was a multiple case study with embedded units of analysis. Semi-structured interviews were used with adoptive parents and three focus groups were held with professionals to collect qualitative data. The data were analysed thematically resulting in the emergence of four main themes: support, process of intervention, impact of intervention and meeting the needs of adoptive parents. These themes are discussed in relation to existing literature, implications for practice and future research. The limitations of the research are also discussed.

Lesley France

Sarah McIntosh

Kevin Woods

An exploration of a Theraplay® informed group as an intervention for adoptive families

探索以Theraplay®为基础的小组干预对领养家庭的作用

Drawing on grounded theory research with parents who brought children into their lives in non-traditional ways, this article considers how three UK-based single adoptive parents navigate a complex set of risks, benefits and limitations as they construct mutually beneficial connections, friendships and support networks online. The discussion draws on media scholarship suggesting that, in response to contemporary norms of constant connection, digital availability and online context ‘collapse’, many internet users appropriate the affordances of online platforms and technologies to maintain personal boundaries and keep social groups apart. I argue that such tight context control can be particularly important for single adoptive parents, whose children are often vulnerable in multiple ways, who continue to face social stigma and misunderstanding, and for whom privacy can be vital to their families’ safety and wellbeing. The article pays particular attention to single adopters’ strategic deployment of three interconnected practices for managing and curating their networks and information sharing: compartmentalisation, selective sharing and disengagement. As well as pointing to similarities between participants’ practices, the article considers how the nuances of their individual circumstances shape and influence their ways of both connecting with, and disconnecting from, a range of individuals, groups and networks.

Jai Mackenzie

(Dis)connected parenting: Context control and information management in single adoptive parents’ social media practice

(断)连式育儿：单亲收养父母社交媒体实践中的情境控制与信息管理

This study investigates whether existing children in a fostering household differ from young people in non-caregiving households in the timing of their transitions to key adult roles, known to affect later health and life chances. Using data from the ONS Longitudinal Study, we pooled records from census years 1971–2001 and linked them to follow-up records from 1981–2011. We identified 2,656 children living with a foster child and compared their profiles on the ‘big five’ transitions to roles of adulthood – finishing school, leaving home, finding work and becoming financially independent, getting married and having children – with those of other children without a foster child in the household (N = 209,453). We fitted logistic and multinomial models that controlled for childhood socioeconomic and demographic confounders to estimate the proportion achieving the five roles in early adulthood. When compared to those without a foster child in the household, a modest but reliably higher proportion of caregivers’ children achieved the transition to adulthood. There was some evidence that caregivers’ children might cope better with the transition to adulthood if they were older than the foster child or were female. The findings suggest that supporting foster parents with delaying their children’s transition to adulthood could become part of the role of supervising social workers.

Amanda Sacker

Rebecca Lacey

Barbara Maughan

Emily Murray

Is foster caring associated with an earlier transition to adulthood for caregivers’ own children? ONS Longitudinal Study

寄养是否与养父母自身子女更早过渡到成年期有关？英国国家统计局纵向研究

短名	Adopt. Foster.
Journal Impact	1.16
国际分区	FAMILY STUDIES(Q3)

ISSN	0308-5759, 1740-469X
h-index	33

涉及主题	心理学社会学政治学医学法学
出版信息	出版商: SAGE Publications Inc.，出版周期: ，期刊类型: journal，开源期刊: 否
基本数据	创刊年份: 1996，原创研究文献占比: 100.00%，自引率:20.00%， Gold OA占比: 41.10%

Adoption & Fostering

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Scotland

Building relational trust and hope: The experiences of counsellors in a service for birth relatives whose children have been adopted or taken into care

The educational experiences of children in care across five decades: A new perspective on the education of looked after children in the UK

Care-experienced young people’s reflections on their relationship to and use of alcohol: A qualitative exploration

BRAC²eD model: An approach to de-bias decision-making in adoption assessments with prospective adopters from minoritised ethnic groups

An exploration of a Theraplay® informed group as an intervention for adoptive families

(Dis)connected parenting: Context control and information management in single adoptive parents’ social media practice

Is foster caring associated with an earlier transition to adulthood for caregivers’ own children? ONS Longitudinal Study

New DfE programme addresses adoption support services in the UK

The needs of unaccompanied minors and their foster carers

Adoption & Fostering

期刊引文格式

有 1 位以上作者的期刊

有 2 位作者的期刊

有 3 位作者的期刊

有 5 位以上作者的期刊

书籍引用格式

学位论文引用格式

网页引用格式

专利引用格式

手工熬夜修改参考文献？研飞自动匹配期刊，一键轻松成稿，支持 Word/WPS

投稿经验分享

Scotland

Building relational trust and hope: The experiences of counsellors in a service for birth relatives whose children have been adopted or taken into care

The educational experiences of children in care across five decades: A new perspective on the education of looked after children in the UK

Care-experienced young people’s reflections on their relationship to and use of alcohol: A qualitative exploration

BRAC2eD model: An approach to de-bias decision-making in adoption assessments with prospective adopters from minoritised ethnic groups

An exploration of a Theraplay® informed group as an intervention for adoptive families

(Dis)connected parenting: Context control and information management in single adoptive parents’ social media practice

Is foster caring associated with an earlier transition to adulthood for caregivers’ own children? ONS Longitudinal Study

New DfE programme addresses adoption support services in the UK

The needs of unaccompanied minors and their foster carers

BRAC²eD model: An approach to de-bias decision-making in adoption assessments with prospective adopters from minoritised ethnic groups