Behavior problems of children in foster care: Associations with foster mothers’ representations, commitment, and the quality of mother–child interaction

The association between parental mental health and behavioral disorders in pre-school children

“…This study evaluated the relationship between parents’ mental health and behavioral problems in pre-school children, and the results were indicative of a positive relationship between the two. The findings were also aligned with other studies ( 2 , 5 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 25 ). It can be said that some parenting preferences are associated with emergence of maladaptive behavior in children ( 26 ).…”

“…In other words, the more severe the parents’ psychological problems, the earlier the children’s behavioral disorders emerge ( 7 ). Studies that have investigated the impact of family interactive patterns in creation of behavioral and emotional problems in children, have considered behavioral disorders as a child’s reaction against family problems on the one hand ( 8 ), and against numerous inappropriate environmental stimuli such as rejecting the child, inadequate parents’ affection and support, excessive kindness, family’s aimlessness and coldness, lack of maternal love and care, insecure childhood attachment, and parents’ stress on the other hand ( 9 , 10 ). Research findings have also emphasized the importance of parents’ health on a child’s wellbeing, as a negative interaction between parents’ and children’s illness would most probably occur when both suffer from the same disorder.…”

“…Fewer behavioral disorders were observed in children whose mothers had better experience in upbringing their children, had less depression, and tried to solve family conflicts ( 11 ). Generally, studies have revealed a high correlation between children’s behavioral disorders and parents’ mental disorders ( 2 ), mothers’ mental stress ( 9 , 12 ), mothers’ poor mental health ( 5 ), mothers’ irrational beliefs ( 13 ), parenting stress ( 14 ), poor child-parent interaction ( 10 ), depression ( 7 , 15 – 17 ) caused by economic problems, social ( 18 ) and cultural ( 19 ) pressures, and parenting styles ( 20 ). Therefore, environmental stress factors (in parents) can create psychological disorders and many other complications for children.…”

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“…Although IC is rarely observed in North America and Western Europe, that is where the overwhelming majority of scientific research on the role of IC in human well-being is taking place. Therefore, most of the data regarding children growing up without their biological parents is derived from studies investigating the effects of foster/adoption family transition -the most common solution for orphans or abandoned children in North American and Western European countries -on children's developmental outcomes (e.g., Dubois-Comtois et al, 2015;Ferrari, Vezzali, & Rosnati, 2017;Piermattei, Pace, Tambelli, D'Onofrio, & Di Folco, 2017).…”

Concurrent child history and contextual predictors of children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in foster care

“…Additionally, children in care may behave differently in different environments, which may lead to children having different types of interactions with kinship caregivers and families compared to non-kinship caregivers and families (Font, 2015). These different interactions may lead to differential behavior effects based on whether the child is in a non-kinship or kinship home Prior research has examined the moderating role of type of placement (foster-to-adopt vs. foster care) and found that there was a negative relation between parent commitment and children's behavior problems for foster care placements but no relation for foster-to-adopt placements (Dubois et al, 2015). The current study extends this work by examining whether kinship vs. non-kinship status moderates the associations between predictors and child behavior problems.…”