Premium
‘Contact Irregular’: a qualitative analysis of the impact of visiting patterns of natural parents on foster placements
Author(s) -
Browne Deborah,
Moloney Ann
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
child and family social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-2206
pISSN - 1356-7500
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2206.2002.00217.x
Subject(s) - categorical variable , foster care , qualitative research , developmental psychology , qualitative analysis , psychology , foster parents , social psychology , outcome (game theory) , medicine , nursing , sociology , social science , mathematics , mathematical economics , machine learning , computer science
Over the years there has been much debate about the effect of parental visiting on children in foster care. While some contend that it is essential to maintain attachment bonds to the birth family, others argue that contact undermines the new relationship with the foster family. By studying descriptions of visiting patterns of 113 foster placements this study attempts to examine how parental access affects the foster child. A qualitative analysis of the written accounts offered by social workers yielded four distinct visiting patterns: Regular and Frequent , Regular but Infrequent , Infrequent , and No Access . The nature of the analysis also allowed for a redefinition of placement outcome into three categories: Successful placements, Ambiguous placements and Crisis placements. Because the categories that emerged from the qualitative analysis were mutually exclusive it was possible to examine, using chi square, whether there was a quantitative relationship between the variables ‘Placement status’ and ‘Visiting patterns’. Analysis of the categorical data showed a statistically significant relationship between visiting patterns and placement outcome. This relationship, however, was not based on how visiting related to Successful or Crisis placements. Instead it was evident that those placements categorized as Ambiguous were far more likely to report Infrequent visiting patterns. Case examples offer an opportunity to examine possible reasons for this relationship. The paper also describes qualitative accounts of how children reacted to the visits. The unique approach to defining placement status in this study may help explain the conflicting findings on this topic over recent years.