Family relations, adjustment and wellbeing in a longitudinal study of children in care

Summary, in English

The article reports on a longitudinal study of children placed in a children's home during the first two years of the 1980s. The 26 children placed when younger than 4 years of age and staying more than 4 weeks were followed up 3 and 9 months after leaving the children's home and 5, 10, 15 and 20 years later. The children's family relations, including early attachments and later parental relationships and the perception of who is their family, have been one of the predominant themes in the recurrent studies. None of them had lived with both parents after leaving the children's home and 20 of them had been in foster care for periods or permanently. At the time of the last study the children were young adults, aged 20–25. They are categorized in three rather distinct categories, one for those with a 'good' and one for those with a 'moderate' social adjustment and well-being and one for those with a 'bad' social adjustment and well-being insofar as involvement with drugs, criminal behaviour and legal sanctions are concerned. Their contacts and relationships with birth parents and foster parents and the perception of who is their family are analysed by use of attachment theory and developmental psychopathology.

• Author: Gunvor Andersson
• Department/s: School of Social Work
• Publishing year: 2005
• Language: English
• Pages: 43-56
• Publication/Series: Child & Family Social Work
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2005.00337.x
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Topic: Social Work
• Status: Published
• Research group: Den sociala barnavården
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1356-7500