Contact visits between foster children and their birth family: the views of foster children, foster parents and social workers

Abstract

It has been argued that contact visits between foster children and birth parents can help maintain attachment bonds and support the child's development. However, some research suggests that such visits can be detrimental. This study analyses the characteristics of contact visits and examines children's perceptions of the emotional relationship they have with foster carers and their biological parents. Participants were 104 non‐kinship foster children and their respective foster carers and social workers. Fifty‐six of these foster children had contact visits with their birth parents. Foster children rated the quality of their relationship with foster carers and birth parents using the Affect Scale. Foster children, foster carers and social workers all completed the Evaluation of Contact Visits Questionnaire. Results showed that (i) a high proportion of children had no contact visits; (ii) the contact agreement was often not fulfilled; (iii) many visits were rated as poor quality; (iv) foster carers' evaluation of visits was more negative than that of both foster children and social workers; and (v) children who experienced poor‐quality visits and perceived less warmth and more criticism/rejection from their parents. These results highlight the need to improve contact visits by developing intervention strategies targeted at all those involved.

Resource Workers’ Relationships with Foster Parents

“…Indigenous Elder) in the discussions between foster parents and resource workers. There was considerable overlap between responses in this concept and the literature indicating that ability to find some common ground (Holland and Gorey 2004) and move forward following a disagreement (Salas Martínez et al 2014) was favored as a quality of good relationships from both the perspectives of foster parents in the literature and workers in the present study. There was also attention in the literature to the need for openness to cultural differences and responsive practice that was sensitive to those differences (Mindell et al 2003).…”

“…This is aided by some advance strength in the relationship with agreement on some important issues (Holland and Gorey 2004) as well as a value of the other person (Mapp 2002) and ability to bridge differences of opinion as needed (Salas Martínez et al 2014).…”

Foster Carers’ Perspectives about Contact in Portugal and Spain

“…In several cases, this is due to Child Protection Services' beliefs that visits could be contrary to the child's well-being. In fact, some biological families that are allowed to have contact do not show up at arranged visits established by the Child Protection Services (Del Valle et al, 2008;Jimé nez & Palacios 2009;Salas et al, 2016).…”

“…Because of the complexities and consequences, contact in foster care, specially visits, have been the subject of discussion and the topic of research in diverse contexts. The current study aims to present and explore the main outcomes on contact obtained in research projects developed in Portugal (Delgado, Carvalho, & Pinto, 2017) and Spain (Salas et al, 2016). The option of comparing different systems, bearing in mind the country's explicit socio-cultural characteristics and policies, aims at targeting what is unique in each country and what can be similar, independently of country context, in order to take advantage of the learning potential that diversity can provide.…”

Do Foster Parents and Care Workers Recognize the Needs of Youth in Family Foster Care with a History of Sexual Abuse?

“…Research has shown that children and adults can have different perspectives on issues and emphasize other aspects of these issues. For example, foster parents evaluate birth parent contacts more negatively than children (Salas Martínez, Fuentes, Bernedo, & García-Martín, 2016). Moreover, youth emphasize autonomy in mental health support while foster parents are more concerned with reducing risk behavior (Stanley, 2007), and children's experiences do not always align with the professionally kept case records, for example regarding permanency and maltreatment histories (Cho & Jackson, 2016;Rolock & Pérez, 2016).…”