Pedagogiek - Volume 40, Issue 2, 2020

“You always think it won’t happen to you…” The importance of biological parents in foster care

European societies still struggle with the question of how to deal best with, and organise care for, those children who for various reasons need to be placed out of their home. Foster care is currently preferred over institutional care when children are in the care of the state. This evolution towards a manifest choice for foster care is defended as being more in ‘the best interests of the child’. During the last decades a shift towards a child’s perspective away from a family-preservation perspective is noticeable. However, we do not know what this shift means for biological parents of foster children. We therefore examine whether the attention to the needs of children is at the expense of the rights and identity of the biological parents. Does strengthening the rights of one party entail a curtailment of rights for another party? Or can we possibly reconcile various interests?

The importance of treating parents in case of imminent out-of-home placement of the child, Child in Healthy System (KINGS)

Child in Healthy System (Kind IN Gezond Systeem; KINGS) is a treatment model, developed for children with severe behavioural problems and their parents. The children and their parents are victims of major interpersonal events, such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, neglect and bullying (physical and/or emotional). KINGS focuses on trauma processing in the child and the parents, and on increasing the sensitivity, responsivity and parenting skills. The result must be that the child can develop into a healthy adult. Both parent and child will develop more trust in others, more self-confidence, and a safer image of the world. The model exists of three different phases, whereby the parent is one phase ahead of the child. The aim is that, if the child is in the last phase, the parent is able to support his or her treatment, as well as that all family members can safely go back to the healthy (family)system and can develop even further. At the moment there is only indirect evidence of the effectiveness of the model; further research on the process and results of the treatment processes are necessary and is actually initiated.

High Conflict Divorce as a Complex Family Problem: Why Domestic Violence Screening is Essential

High Conflict Divorce form 20% of separations that involve children. These parents continue to litigate child custody and parenting arrangements, and accuse each other of child abuse, intimate partner violence, and mental health problems. The children suffer because of longstanding animosity. In this contribution, we report on a pilot study among 102 parents in a high conflict divorce, assessed at the Child Protection Council, Safe Home, or a child welfare service. The MASIC, a structured screening interview for intimate partner violence (IPV), was administered to each parent separately. Results revealed that the prevalence of different types of IPV was extremely high in our sample, and the violence kept occurring after the divorce, albeit somewhat less frequently. Our findings largely concur with international research in this area. In particular, the presence of coercive controlling violence perpetrated by one of the ex-partners, should prompt the professional to conduct further evaluation of parental and child safety. The type of IPV that emerges from the MASIC screening has implications for the advice to the parents and the family court.

The reliability of children’s testimonies

Children’s testimonies about abusive experiences can play a pivotal role in the criminal justice system. This is especially the case when other types of evidence (such as videos, technical traces) are absent. In such cases, it is imperative that children’s testimonies accurately reflect what they have experienced. In the current article, the reliability of children’s statements is discussed. We discuss what children can remember of traumatic incidents and elaborate on how children’s false memories can be relatively easily evoked. Furthermore, we discuss how children can best be interviewed using scientifically supported interview protocols. Children’s testimonies can be decisive in legal decision-making. Hence, it is of the utmost importance that these statements are reliable.