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published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

This PhD study explored the day to day lives of young people living in foster care in the United Kingdom. This study utilises Bourdieu’s (1986) conceptualisation of social capital, which has been described as a useful heuristic as it focuses on practices and processes (Morrow 1999) within networks. One of the original contributions of this thesis is its application of Bourdieu’s theory as an analytical framework to explore young people’s experiences of foster care. The study employed qualitative methods to gather rich, contextualised data. Ten young people, aged between twelve to fourteen years old, participated in the research and each of the participants were interviewed on two occasions. Findings are presented across three chapters and they highlight the ways young people in foster care both preserve and build their access to social capital. Firstly, this includes the ways in which the young people are actively engaged in practices to manage and preserve their relationships and as a result their access to social capital. Secondly, findings show that young people in foster care experience stigma by virtue of having the status of being ‘in- care’, and in order to minimise this, the young people actively managed their spoiled identity (Goffman 1968), which allowed them to maintain access to social capital. Thirdly, the findings show that despite the experience of disrupted networks and multiple placement moves, given the opportunity, the participants demonstrated their ability to persevere in their attempts to start again, which built their access to social capital. This thesis offers a particular utility for the discipline of social work, by providing a way of understanding and theorising how young people continually work, in both prosaic and at times heroic ways, to minimise the disruption to their relationships, networks and their subsequent access to social capital.

Sibling relationships are an important, yet under investigated aspect of foster care research. Despite the fact that between 65-85% of children in care have brothers and sisters, only recently have child welfare researchers begun to explore the complex and dynamic nature of sibling relationships in substitute care settings. Although cross-sectional and longitudinal studies suggest differences in placement stability and permanency outcomes for siblings placed together versus those placed separately, the conditions under which sibling relationships influence placement stability, permanency, and well-being in foster care settings remain unknown. This dissertation investigated how family dynamics and home setting characteristics influenced the likelihood of a foster care placement change for a sample of children who participated in a sibling relationship enhancement intervention (SIBS-FC) study. A conceptual model was proposed to help explain the circumstances which lead to foster care placement change, and the moderating effects of family living composition on the odds of placement change over an 18-month period were examined. Two multivariate statistical approaches were used in this investigation. The first approach involved examining the effects of a child's report of positive home integration, sibling relationship quality, caregiver's reported impact of child behavior, sibling living situation, kinship caregiver status, number of placements prior to study entry, and receipt of the SIBS-FC intervention on the odds of placement change. Results suggest that children in kinship care were 58% less likely to experience placement change than those who lived in non-relative care, and youth who lived apart from their siblings were 70% more likely to experience placement change than those who lived together. In the second statistical approach, living composition categories were constructed to understand the moderating effects of different living situations on the odds of placement change. Living composition categories included youth who lived in kinship care with their siblings, youth who lived in kinship care without their siblings, and youth who lived in non-relative care with their siblings, with youth in non-relative care who lived apart from their siblings serving as the referent category. Findings support a moderation effect for different categories of living composition, as well as a trend level effect for sibling relationship quality and odds of placement change. Living with one's sibling in kinship care decreased the odds of placement change by 75%, as compared to living apart from one's sibling in a non-relative foster home. A post-hoc analysis determined that all living composition categories were statistically different from one another in relative odds of a placement change. This dissertation provides additional evidence concerning the protective nature of kinship care and sibling co-placement on reducing the odds of experiencing a foster care placement change, and provides support for practices and policies prioritizing kinship care and the co-placement of siblings when making substitute care placement decisions. Future studies of siblings in foster care should explore the experiences of youth across the different forms of foster care living composition, examine the relationship between placement stability and permanency outcomes, and examine the relationship between placement stability, permanency, and child well-being.

No description available.

One of the major challenges currently being faced by out-of-home care services is the issue of placement breakdown and multiple placements, and the psychological effects of these experiences. Previous longitudinal research by Barber and Delfabbro (2004) indicates that approximately 15-20% of young people in Australian out-of-home care have significant emotional and behavioural problems or 'high support needs' that often condemns them to a life of repeated placement instability and further psychosocial harm. This thesis reports the findings of Australia's first national comparative study of 364 children with this placement profile in four Australian States (Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia). Based on detailed interviews with case-workers, case-file reading, and comprehensive analysis of objective placement data, this study provides a detailed analysis of the social and family background of this population of children, their psychosocial profile, service history, and their placement experiences. It was found almost all of the children with high support needs in Australian out-of-home care had been subjected to traumatic, abusive, and highly unstable family backgrounds. A proportion of young people had experienced over 30 placement changes and approximately 70% scored in the clinical range of emotional and behavioural disturbance. The young people in the sample were generally very similar in their characteristics. Children within this population appear to form one single cluster based upon very common family experiences; namely, the combined effects of domestic violence, substance abuse, physical violence and neglect. Such findings suggest very strongly that out-of- home care policy cannot, and should not, be considered in isolation from other important areas of social policy and public health. Following the review of the characteristics of the children, the thesis examined the range of therapeutic interventions and placement options that might be suitable to address their needs. This section involved a literature review, an extensive internet search of care and service options and a review of program information wherever this was available. It is clear from the review that it is very difficult to maintain this population of children and young people in stable family-based foster care arrangements within the existing out-of-home care system. This thesis highlights the need for a greater integration of services and a greater focus on ensuring an ongoing commitment to addressing the entrenched psychological and social difficulties contributing to placement instability. There is also a great need for a re-structuring and re-thinking of the continuum of care services available to children in out-of-home care, including the possible development of professional foster care services and an increased use and availability of treatment group residential care options. Most importantly, a re-structuring of the way child protective services and family, social and mental health services are provided and coordinated by State governments is felt to be desperately needed. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Psychology, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 12, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

<p>Socialtjänsten har ett ansvar för att se till att familjehemsplacerade barn får en trygg och bra uppväxt. Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa en förståelse och en ökad kunskap kring hur väl socialtjänsten tar det ansvaret. Enligt tidigare forskning finns en del brister i familjehemsvår-den.</p><p>För att ge en bild av socialtjänstens uppföljningsarbete med familjehemsplacerade barn har jag använt en kvalitativ intervjumetod och intervjuat familjehemsföräldrar och social-sekreterare kring tolv familjehemsplacerade barn.</p><p>Några resultat är att socialtjänsten vanligtvis föjer upp placeringarna två gånger om året med hembesök där man pratar med barnet, att man i liten utsträckning använder någon strukturerad metod vid uppföljningen, att socialtjänsten oftast arbetar aktivt med barnets kontakt med de biologiska föräldrarna samt att socialtjänsten oftast har upprättat vårdplaner kring barnen. Det finns många faktorer som påverkar arbetet. Några av dem är barnets behov, tilltro till familje-hemmet, intressekonflikter, socialtjänstens organisation, ekonomiska resurser och personliga egenskaper hos socialsekreterarna.</p><p>Resultaten har jämförts med tidigare forskning och analyserats utifrån systemteori och rollteo-ri. En slutsats är att det trots förändringar i lagstiftningen, där barnperspektivet blivit starkare, är svårt att förändra socialtjänstsystemet och anta en stark roll som barnets företrädare.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 22, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Gary L. Creasey (chair), Jeanne A. Howard, Susan L. Smith, Adena B. Meyers, Alvin E. House. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-154) and abstract. Also available in print.

Socialtjänsten har ett ansvar för att se till att familjehemsplacerade barn får en trygg och bra uppväxt. Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa en förståelse och en ökad kunskap kring hur väl socialtjänsten tar det ansvaret. Enligt tidigare forskning finns en del brister i familjehemsvår-den. För att ge en bild av socialtjänstens uppföljningsarbete med familjehemsplacerade barn har jag använt en kvalitativ intervjumetod och intervjuat familjehemsföräldrar och social-sekreterare kring tolv familjehemsplacerade barn. Några resultat är att socialtjänsten vanligtvis föjer upp placeringarna två gånger om året med hembesök där man pratar med barnet, att man i liten utsträckning använder någon strukturerad metod vid uppföljningen, att socialtjänsten oftast arbetar aktivt med barnets kontakt med de biologiska föräldrarna samt att socialtjänsten oftast har upprättat vårdplaner kring barnen. Det finns många faktorer som påverkar arbetet. Några av dem är barnets behov, tilltro till familje-hemmet, intressekonflikter, socialtjänstens organisation, ekonomiska resurser och personliga egenskaper hos socialsekreterarna. Resultaten har jämförts med tidigare forskning och analyserats utifrån systemteori och rollteo-ri. En slutsats är att det trots förändringar i lagstiftningen, där barnperspektivet blivit starkare, är svårt att förändra socialtjänstsystemet och anta en stark roll som barnets företrädare.