Parenting Late-Placed Children: The Development of New Relationships and the Challenge of Behavioural Problems

Abstract

This article reports on the development of new relationships and the presence of behavioural and emotional problems in a study of 61 five- to nine-year-old children placed from care with the intention of permanence in new, unrelated families during middle childhood. When interviewed, new parents reported that 73% of the children had formed an attached relationship with one or both parents by the end of their first year in placement. The children who were not regarded as attached showed more behavioural and emotional problems and overactive/restless behaviour, and were also more likely to have been actively rejected by their birth parents. More detailed aspects of possible difficulties in the new parent/child relationships were investigated by means of a parent-completed questionnaire which explored the children’s expression of feelings. The non-attached children had many more difficulties in communicating their feelings and in specific interactions with their new parents by the end of the first year of placement. The new parents of these children tended to find it difficult to relate to them in a warm, responsive manner early in the placement and this worsened by the end of the year. There was considerable overlap between behavioural and relationship problems, suggesting the need to promote the quality of the relationship between children and their new parents as well as to reduce the level of behavioural problems in the children. Implications for post-placement support and intervention are discussed.