Do frequency of visits with birth parents impact children’s mental health and parental stress in stable foster care settings

Abstract

This article explores whether the number of visits by birth parents influence perceptions of attachment, children’s competence and mental health, and stress levels in foster parents. Foster parents acted as informants regarding 203 children living in kinship and non-kinship foster care. The children were young when placed in foster care, on average 2.3 years old (SD = 1.0) and had been living in the foster home for sometime at assessment, 5.4 years (SD = 3.0). Information were collected using validated instruments. The results showed that 47% of the children had monthly or more frequent visits with their mothers, whereas 21% of the fathers had visits this often. Visitations with birth parents did not significantly influence who was the main attachment figure or foster parental attachment relationships, the children’s psychosocial functioning or competence, or stress levels among the foster parents. These findings could indicate that social workers should emphasize the quality and short- and long-term consequences of visits for children when making decisions regarding the frequency of visits with birth parents. This could be done taking the child’s reactions and wishes into account, when evaluating the visit and the frequency of future visits. It is important that decisions concerning visits should be continuously revised in both the short- and the long term, since both wishes and practical aspects may change for all parties involved.

Keyword:

• foster care
• visits
• psychosocial functioning
• foster parent stress

Public Interest Statement

Foster care is a necessity for some children. When children grow up under such arrangements, birth parents have a legal right to meet with their child. In Norway, the extent of visitations is determined by courts. This is common. Knowledge of how visits influence foster children’s mental health and foster parental stress are somewhat limited. This is relevant when courts determine the amount of parental visitations for foster children. Concerns raised by professionals and laypersons alike, that visits with birth parents negatively influence the children’s mental health, attachment between the child and foster parents and foster parent stress influence these decisions. This study conducted in Norway suggested that negative effects are not true in all cases, at least when children were placed young and living in stable settings. Instead of being concerned with possible negative effects of visits, the most important consideration is the quality and not the frequency of visits. Still, some visits with birth parents constitute major stress for all parties, and the findings in this study is not an argument for more visits in these cases.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sturla Fossum

Sturla Fossum works as an associate professor at UiT, the Arctic University of Norway (UiT). He has conducted studies of parent training for aggressive children, child welfare, and meta-analyses and reviews. Svein Arild Vis works as an associate professor at the same site and he has conducted research of child involvement in child welfare investigations, reviews of child welfare practices, and children living in foster care. Amy Holtan works as a professor at UiT. She has published articles in child welfare, foster care and in particular, on kinship foster care placement and co-authored reviews on kinship foster care. Holtan is project leader on “Outcome and experiences of kinship foster care placements” of which this paper is a part of. The project group is currently conducting a long-term follow-up of these children living in foster homes.