THE UTILISATION OF ATTACHMENT THEORY BY SOCIAL WORKERS IN FOSTER

CARE SUPERVISION

By Wezet Botes & Dr Elma Ryke

Is attachment theory relevant to social work?Children in foster care many times has experienced trauma which affected their ability to form attachments. (Harden, 2004:11; Howe et al., 1999:62; May, 2005:81) These placements are at risk pf collapse when an attachment between the child and foster parent doesn’t form successfully. (Green, 2003:209; Harden, 2004:35; Chamberlain et al, 2001)Research in early 80’s indicated that factors associated to the social worker has a direct effect on the service to the foster family. Stone and Stone (1983) and Pardeck (1984), quoted by Chamberlain et al, (2001:201)Attachment theory provides a way of understanding and addressing attachment between parent and child. (Bowlby, 1969)

Central theoretical statement

• Haight et al., (2003) holds that ”understanding several aspects of attachment relationships can guide social workers to developmentally and culturally sensitive practice, as well as provide a foundation for recognising problems in attachment relationships”.

• Social workers currently doing foster care supervision, employed at Child Welfare Tshwane, do not have adequate knowledge of Attachment Theory nor do they apply this knowledge in practice.

Methodology

• Quantitative-descriptive survey.• Self developed questionnaire administered over

the telephone.• Non-probability purposive sampling method.• 45% (32) of social workers at CWT work with

foster care placements. 94% (17) were accessed for the study.

• Reliability and validity: questionnaire developed in line with literature on AT, screened by an expert and then piloted, triangulation of variables within questionnaire.

Methodology

• Data was processed electronically on SPSS and Exell with support from the statistics department of North-West University and independent research psychologist .

• Ethics: complied with the North-West University’s guidelines for ethical research. (Ethics Committee, reference number: NWU-00037-07-S7) along with permission from CWT to conduct the research.

• Limitations: small sample size, restricted to one organisation some categories in sample was over represented (0-3 years exp).

Demographics

• Age: (n=17) mean 36. min-22, max-64• Gender: all female.• Race: B-53%, C-6%, I-6%, W-35%.• Education: Undergrad-6%, Graduate-94%,

Post-Grad- 24% =9Universities in SA.• Years experience SW: 0-3=59%, 4-6=6%, 7-

9=6%, 10-12=12%, 12<=18.• Years experience FC:0-3=82% 4-6=12% 7-

9=6% 10-12=0% 12<=0%.

Knowledge and use of theoretical components of Attachment

Theory

• Theoretical components :Average knowledge of AT=24%, Average use of AT=20%.Low scores!

• Selected various concepts associated to Attachment Theory and researched if they know/ use them in FC supervision.

• Sources of knowledge: University SW=12%, University Psych=30%, P.Q. training=21%, In practice exp=35%.

Knowledge and use of theoretical components of Attachment

Theory

• Cross reference experience with knowledge and use of AT:

• Less experienced workers had some knowledge but much lower use of AT (26% K & 10% U) .

• More experienced workers had greater knowledge and use of AT (48% K & 49% U)

Attachment Theory used in foster care supervision

Figure 3: Attachment Theory used in foster care supervision

22

25

24

21

19

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Foster care screening

Foster care supervision visits

Placement assessment

Report writing

Panel discussions

Percentage

Self-evaluation of the use of

Attachment Theory components • Social workers consistently rated their ability to

identify and address attachment related issues higher as what their theoretical knowledge and use scores revealed.

• Worrying that they report that they know how to identify a child’ s attachment pattern, but did not know what it was or could identify the different kinds of attachment patterns of AT earlier on in the questionnaire.

• Most of the workers(71%) however reported that they have moved children out of an existing placement due to attachment problems.

Self evaluation of in practice use of Attachment theory

Figuer 5: Self evaluation of 'in practice' use of Attachment Theory

65

88

59

53

35

71

24

6

18

35

47

12

12

6

24

12

18

18

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Ability to identify attachmentpatterns

Consider attachment patterns in FCplacements

Current level of Attachment Theoryknowledge positively impacts

placement decisions

Confidence in assessingattachment

Confidence to do attachmenttherapy

Moved children due to attachmentproblems

Percentage

Agree

Not sure

Disagree

Conclusion • The research indicates that the social workers did not have

adequate knowledge of Attachment Theory to optimally utilise it within foster care supervision.

• They had a ‘common sense’ approach to understanding and addressing attachment-related issues but lacked the theoretical knowledge to underscore their efforts to address the attachment between the foster parent and the child.

• The generally low scores related to the theoretical components compared to the respondents’ higher scores of self-evaluation of their in-practice knowledge and use of Attachment Theory revealed that they are unable to identify and address the attachment needs of their clients.

• It seemed that they were largely under a false impression of their actual ability to deal with attachment-related issues. These research results could indicate that the attachment-related needs of clients are, to a large extent, left unattended.

References

– BOWLBY, J. 1969. Attachment and loss: Volume 1. Attachment. London: Hogarth Press.

– CHAMBERLAIN, P., SMITH, D.K., STORMSHAK, E. & BRIDGES-WHALEY, R. 2001. Placement Disruption in Treatment Foster Care. Journal of emotional and behavioural disorders, 9 (3):200-205.

– GREEN, V. 2003. Emotional Development in Psychoanalysis, Attachment Theory, and Neuroscience: Creating Connections. New York: Brunner-Routledge.

– HARDEN, B.J. 2004. Safety and Stability for Foster Children: A Developmental Perspective. The future of children, 14: 31-47.

– HOWE, D., BRANDON, M., HININGS, D. & SCHOFIELD, G. 1999. Attachment Theory, Child Maltreatment, and Family Support: A Practice and Assessment Model. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

– HOWES, C. 1999. Attachment relationships in the context of multiple care givers. (In CASSIDY, J. & SHAVER, P.R., eds. Handbook of attachment: Theory research and critical application. New York: Guildford Press. 671-687 p.)

– MAY, J.C. 2005. Family Attachment Narrative Therapy: healing the experience of early childhood maltreatment. Journal of marital and family therapy, 81-99, Jul.

– PARDECK, J.T. 1984. Multiple placements of children in foster family care: An empirical analysis. Social work, 29: 506-509.

– STONE, N. & STONE, S. 1983. The prediction of successful foster placement. Journal of contemporary social work, 1:11-17.