Sharing the care

1
Sharing the care

• How do parents with children placed in foster
  care perceive parenthood?

2
Research on parents with children in care

• Generally very limited research on parents with
  children in care
• Most researchers agree that parent-child contact
  is preferable - However - results are not
  consistent
• Parent-child contact and good contact between
  parents and foster carers prevents premature
  returns to birth parents

3
The Swedish context

• In 2006, about 20 700 children and young people
  were placed in out-of-home care - this represents
  one per cent of the population in this age-group
• 73 percent were placed in foster care
• 27 percent were placed in residential care
• Foster care is preferred to institutional care

4
Child welfare policies

• No permanency planning - in most cases parents
  keep legal custody throughout the placement
• The importance of maintained contact with
  biological family network is emphasised
• Placements in care are seen as temporary
  solutions - reunification is the aim

5
Class perspective

• In Sweden - about 90 per cent of parents with
  children in care were working class
• Socioeconomic factors are important -
  unemployment, bad housing, health problems of
  parents - also effect children
• Poor people are more visible- lack the means of
  seeking private help - often dependent on social
  services

6
Placement in care before the age of
seven(Children born 1992-1996)

• Children living with both parents, mother has
  some kind of college or university education
• 1 child out of 2 000
• Children living with single, poor, unemployed
  mother
• 1 child out of 7

7
Combination of gender and class perspectives on
child welfare

• Parental responsibilities of mothers in focus -
  not equivalent focus on fathers
• Single mothers seen as problematic - as an
  incomplete family - in a historical perspective
  as well as in contemporary child welfare
• Single mothers with low socioeconomic status
  particularly criticised the poor mother as an
  object of social interventions

8
Research on social workers assessments of parents

• Families are constantly compared with the image
  of the competent nuclear family - As most
  families are single mothers, this becomes a
  problematic issue
• Different assessment of mothers and fathers
• Focus on deficient mothers
• A good motherhood implied all responsibility
  for children
• A good fatherhood did not imply any particular
  parental responsibility
• Fathers are often invisible and distant

9
Contextual frame for the shared care

• Birth parents Unable to perform good-enough
  parenting. Some kind of parental and/or
  environmental deficit as a prerequisite for a
  placement in out-of-home care
• Foster parents Competent, resourceful. Capable
  of providing good parental care, and a good
  environment for children
• Cooperation between these two parental units -
  grounded in an asymmetric relation

10
Methods used in this study

• Parents were invited by the Swedish foundation
  Allmänna Barnhuset to spend three days at their
  conference centre.
• Focus groups with 13 parents (12 mothers and 1
  father) - different constellations of groups
• Group discussions recorded and later transcribed
• Possible bias
• Parents had participated in other groups - told
  their story before, confident and competent
  enough to verbalise their experiences - may not
  be representative
• However - wide representation of difficult
  backgrounds drug abuse, mental problems, health
  problems, violent relationships

11
Before children were placed - contact with social
services

• Participation - important to be part of the
  planning process
• Information - be informed of possible
  alternatives
• Respect - be listened to
• Relation - meeting the same person, not having to
  repeat the same story

12
Relations to the other parent

• Very few lived together with the other parent at
  time of placement in care
• A majority had experienced abuse and violence in
  their relationship with the other parent
• Many parents felt abandoned and lonely

13
Crisis reactions misinterpreted

• Separation from children were often very painful
• Parents crisis reactions perceived as
  aggressiveness and hostility - were used as
  evidence of dysfunctional parenthood
• Crisis reactions could make parents unable to
  understand the assessment process, and the
  placement of the child in care

14
Feelings of shame

• Mothers often felt they were to blame for the
  family problems
• the fathers are not at all presentwe have taken
  all the shame upon us. Its our shame and our
  guilt (Sonja)
• There were exceptions - the only father present
  were the responsible parent in his family

15
Being a bad mother

• A majority of the mothers had a self-image of
  themselves as bad mothers
• I have always felt inferior. Of course this is
  because I feel guilty and ashamed, as I havent
  been able to be a good mother (Gunilla)
• Feelings of inferiority could have a negative
  influence on cooperation with social services and
  foster carers - but also on the relationship
  parent - child
• Parents became mute - unable to express their
  own views, and share important information and
  knowledge about the child

16
Contact between parents and children in care

• Difficult to relate to children during visits in
  the foster home
• Visits in parents home preferred
• If this is not possible - visits could be
  performed at neutral places
• Parents felt they had little to offer children -
  compared their own resources - economical,
  social, practical - with foster carers

17
Information as a prerequisite for participation

• All parents wanted to be part of their
  childrens lives
• Information of childrens everyday life provided
  a necessary base for the quality of parent-child
  contact
• Important to be informed of school
  performances/activities

18
Parents perception of childrens situation

• A functioning cooperation between parents and
  foster carers important for childrens well-being
  
• Children need to be given permission to feel safe
  and settled in the foster home
• Loyal children - squeezed between their two sets
  of parents
• Children need to be informed of future plans -
  but at the same time important not to make
  children responsible for plans and decisions

19
Parents perspective of cooperation

• Good cooperation with foster carers as long as
  parents accept a subordinated position
• If parents became more demanding, cooperation
  could become problematic
• Feelings of inferiority had an inhibitory effect
  on parents ability to participate and be engaged
  in their childrens lives - made them seem
  inactive
• Inactive parents can be perceived as
  uninterested, and incapable - catch 22?

20
Incentives for fostering

• Foster carers want to
• Use their parental skills
• Make a difference in a childs life
• Do good
• Very few - if any? - mention cooperation with
  birth parents as an incentive for fostering
• To what extent are they prepared for the
  challenging task of sharing the care with birth
  parents?

21
Parents specific demands of placement criteria

• Foster carers should be aware of the need of
  cooperation with parents
• Foster carers need to include the childs
  extended network - grandparents, relatives, other
  significant persons
• The purpose of the placement should be the
  childs return to birth parents

22
Parents suggestions for better performances of
social workers

• More support to parents after the child was
  placed - many parents felt desperate and confused
  after the separation from the child
• Important to be confirmed as parents - still
  having a part to play in the childs life
• More information and support to foster carers
• Information about the parents situation
• Support in the cooperation with parents

23
Conclusive questions

• How are parents with children in care perceived?
  Still deserving parental rights?
• Does the post-modern demands on parenthood
  place these parents in a more difficult position?
• What influence has the unequal socioeconomic
  situation between parents and foster carers? Is
  this difference (and its impact) recognised?
• How can the asymmetric relation between parents
  and foster carers best be recognised and
  addressed?
• What support do parents and foster carers need to
  share the care - with the best interest of the
  child in focus?