Re: Foster parents opinions

["Tasha R. Howe, Ph.D" <thowe@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I worked on a project at Vanderbilt with Ellen Pinderhughes where we looked
at Foster Parent Expectations and the eventual disruption or staying
together of the final adoption. It seemed that expectations that the entire
family would have to change to accommodate the new child were related to
adoption success. Expectations that "all the child needs is love" were
related to disruption (e.g. the family as a unit didn't feel it had to
change but their love would change the abused child they wanted to adopt).
You may want to look up Pinderhughes' theoretical model explaining this (it
was published in a social work journal). The article I worked on is in her
hands for revision.

Johannes Ernst wrote:

> I wonder whether anyone has ever collected data on the correlation
> (or lack thereof) between
>
>   - the opinion of foster parents on the likely success of a pending
>     reunification with birth parents
>
>   - the actual success a few months/years later
>
> Related: the opinion of the child (assuming they are old enough to have
> such an opinion)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Johannes.

--
***********
Tasha R. Howe, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Psychology (Developmental)
Transylvania University
300 N. Broadway
Lexington, KY  40508
(859) 233-8144
FAX: (859) 281-3507
Website: http://www.transy.edu/homepages/thowe/ftpdpages/index2.html