International Journal of Child & family Welfare 5-1/2

ISSN 1357-5279
VOLUME 5 NUMBERS 1/2
MARCH 2002

Table of contents
Editorial
Introduction

Table of Contents
2
Editor's note

3
Introduction

5
Risk and protective factors influencing life skills among youths in long-term foster care
Nollan, K.A.; Pecora, P.J.; Nuruis, P.N. & Whittaker, J.K

Abstract: This article examines the predictive value of selected risk and protective factors in explaining self-sufficiency skills of youths in long-term foster care. The sample included 219 ethnically diverse youths (133 females and 86 males) in care and their caregivers. The average age of the youths was 13.96 years. This study measured life skills with the Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment, completed independently by youths and caregivers, as well as a survey of social workers to gather additional information about the incidence of specific risk and protective factors. Protective factors were associated with greater self-sufficiency skills and risk factors were negatively associated. Using stepwise regression, for caregivers, risk and protective factors in a linear combination, explained more variance of the skill areas of Decision-Making, Social Relationships and Money Management than when considered in separate regression analyses. The reverse was true for these areas rated by youths. Practice and research implications are discussed.

18
Taxonomy of foster children in foster homes
Strijker, J.; Zandberg, T.; & van der Meulen, B.F.

Abstract:There is a lack of a reliable, valid, and clinically useful classification system of behavior problems displayed by foster children in foster homes. The aim of this study was to develop and to initiate the validation of a classification system in order to categorize behavior problems of foster children. Child Behavior Checklists (CBCL, Achenbach, 1991) were gathered from 91 foster children in the Netherlands. A cluster analysis was performed on the eight CBCL narrow-band syndromes. Four groups were found: normal, aggressive-delinquent-social problems, attention-social problems, and withdrawn-social problems. These taxa corresponded well with Achenbach’s general taxonomy. However, both taxonomies lacked predictive validity for foster care.

28
Social workers' attitudes towards Family Group Conferences in Sweden and the United Kingdom
Sundell, K., Vinnerljung, B. & Ryburn, M.

Abstract: The New Zealand Family Group Conference (FCC) approach to decision making in child welfare and protection has attracted strong interest among policymakers and professionals all over the world. While New Zealand’s legislation makes use of FGCs more or less mandatory in child protection, other countries permit social workers to refer families to an FGC at their own discretion. Knowledge about social workers’ attitudes toward the model is thus paramount if we want to understand implementation and evaluations of FGCs outside New Zealand. This study looks at attitudes towards and actual referrals to FGCs amongst 219 social workers from 18 local authorities in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Results reveal an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards FGCs in both countries. Given these attitudes it was striking that only 42% of the social workers had initiated at least one FCC over an 18 month period. The number of implemented FGCs was almost exactly the same in Sweden and the United Kingdom, after adjusting for time and number of social workers. Possible explanations for this paradox are discussed, using data from the survey and child welfare literature.

40
Relationships between child behavior problems and family functioning: A literature review
Van As, N.M.C., & Janssens, J.M.A.M.

Abstract: In this study a literature review is presented on the relationship between family functioning and child behaviour problems. We focussed on parenting styles, intergenerational relationships, family structure and family interaction patterns. We concluded that child behavior problems are related to a lack of parental support, an imbalanced parent-child relationship, a lack of cohesion and structure in the family, and a poor quality of communication between parents and children. We discussed causality of these relationships and implications for family interventions.

52
Prevalence of loneliness and friendship in children with learning disabilities: Children’s, parents’ and teachers’ perceptions
Heiman, T.

Abstract: This study investigated loneliness feelings and the quality of friendship among 58 students with learning disabilities, and compared their loneliness and friendship quality evaluations with their parents’ and teachers’ perceptions. Results revealed variances among groups: the students perceived their loneliness as Iower than their parents and teachers. Examining the quality of friendship, results indicated that parents counted a larger number of the student’s friends, with a higher degree of student acceptance in class while students tended to have fewer friends. Contrary to the parents’ perception, teachers reported less loneliness at school, though no differences were found in teachers’ perception of student’s loneliness at home. The study highlighted the need for parent and teacher involvement in students’ social and emotional difficulties, and accentuated the importance of developing awareness and an ability to differentiate between aspects of loneliness and friendship quality among students with disabilities.

62
Book reviews

64
Announcements

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Editorial

This volume of the International Journal of Child & Family Welfare is in all respects a special one. It is the first one under my editorship, although this will not mark a change in style or content, since the founding editors, professor Jan Van der Ploeg and dr. Evert Scholte, still belong to the group of associate editors. More important is that the Journal had to find a new home. We are truly delighted that Acco accepted to publish it. In addition to these changes, we extended the editorial hoard. Now, a group of outstanding researchers from different centres and universities in Europe and North America share the hoard, including child psychologists and psychiatrists, pedagogues, and social workers. We believe that this extension will make the Journal to a truly international forum for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the field of child welfare and youth care. Finally, from now on the Journal will be labeled an official publication of the European Scientific Association for Residential and Foster Care for Children and Adolescents (EUSARF). In each issue, we will announce forthcoming activities (e.g., congresses, publications) of the Association. We hope that this link will stimulate EUSARF members as well as others working in fields related to the Association to consider the Journal for publication of their work. Finally, the Journal has a homepage on the Internet, http://eusarf.cjh.net.

Hans Grietens

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Introduction

Jan van der Ploeg and Evert Scholte

During the last decades foster care has become ever more popular to help troubled children who cannot stay in their birth families for whatever reasons. However, several outcome studies have shown that youths placed in foster care do less well than their peers in the general population in several areas of development. For example, foster children often lag behind in reading and math skills, they have school completion rates which are proportionally low and at adult age former foster children often are unemployed, receive public aid or have seriously deviant lifestyles (e.g., homelessness).

Nollan, Pecora, Nurius and Whittaker argue that such long term risks run by foster children are linked to the development of inadequate life skills and try to trace the risk and protective factors influencing the life skills among youth in long-term foster care. They found that protective factors like good relationships with the foster parents, high self-esteem and involvement in social groups were associated with greater self-sufficiency skills, while risk factors like ADHD, special education, many placement changes and abuse and neglect were associated with fewer self-sufficiency skills. This study clearly suggests the importance of finding an adequate match betxveen the foster child and the foster family. For example, if a foster child is hyperactive and impulsive and the foster parents are not fit enough to handle a busy child one can easily understand that things will go wrong. If children and families are not well matched and the stay in the foster family is not well planned by the welfare agencies, the children will run a high risk of being replaced and experience the negative consequences associated with this, like feelings of unsafety and developing a lack of trust in caring adults and the child welfare system.

In addition, Strijker, Zandberg and Van der Meulen argue that we lack an objective and reliable classification system of behaviour and emotional problems of foster children in their foster homes and thus, the necessary notions for treatment planning and supervising. Using cluster analysis, they investigated whether the eight syndromes of the Child Behavior Checklist can be used to label the psychosocial problems of foster children. Four groups were found and these taxa turned out to correspond with the CBCL taxonomy. However, the taxonomies found lacked predictive validity for foster care. This suggests that alternative matching instruments must be developed.

Recent research has shown that many regular approaches used in child welfare often fail to adequately help troubled families with lower socio-economical backgrounds and families with cultural origins differing from the societal mainstream. As an answer to this unwanted phenomenon social work disciplines have recently developed methods for Family Group Conferencing (FCC). Such FGC-approaches are usually based on the idea that, given the resources, the information, and the power, the family itself is the most capable instance to decide for their children safely and appropriately. This implies that professionals such as social workers and doctors must step backwards. Their role is not to decide, but to help the decision-making in the troubled families, by providing information, resources and expertise that will help the family group. Professionals thus get a new crucial role as resource people. One method of FCC was originally developed in New Zealand, and while the legislation of this country uses FGCs essentially mandatory in child protection, other countries permit to refer families at their own discretion. Knowledge about social workers’ attitudes towards the FGC-model is thus paramount to understand the use of FGCs outside New Zealand. Sundell, Vinnerljung and Ryburn investigated the attitudes towards FGC of social workers in Sweden and the United Kingdom, two countries in which the New Zealand model recently has been implemented. Further, they analyzed actual referrals to FGC in both countries. They found that the number of implemented FGCs was almost the same in Sweden and the United Kingdom and reported overwhelmingly positive attitudes towards FGCs in both countries, although only few social workers actually had initiated FGC.

Van As and Janssens discuss aspects of family functioning related to child behavior problems. They focus on parenting styles, intergenerational relationships, family structure and familial interaction patterns. They conclude that the development of child behaviour problems is related to a lack of parent support, unbalanced parent-child relationships, a lack of cohesion and regulation in the family structure, and a poor quality of communication between parents and child. Yet, no firm conclusions can be drawn about the causality of the relationships, as the behavioural problems of the child can also be causative for the adverse functioning of families. It will be the task of future research to unravel circular causative mechanisms contributing to harmful family-child interactions.

Lack of friendships and feelings of loneliness often form additional risk factors threatening children with developmental difficulties. Heiman explores this issue for learning disabled students by comparing their evaluation of friendship qualities with their parents’ and teachers’ perceptions. He found that learning disabled students reported less loneliness than their parents. On the other hand, parents thought their children had more friends at school than they actually had. Parent and teacher reports on loneliness and the quality of relationships with peers were much more in concordance. The findings underscore the need for both parent and teacher reports in the clinical assessment of social and emotional difficulties in learning disabled children.