Initial Adaptation to Foster Care Placement
When children are first placed into foster care, they often behave in ways that suggest that caregivers are not needed. For example, when Maurice fell down and hurt himself, he whimpered and sat alone, hugging himself, even though his mother called his name and said, "oh, poor baby." When Esther became frightened of a dog barking, she backed into a corner of the yard rather than run into her foster mother's arms.
We developed a diary methodology that allowed us to study how children developed attachments to foster parents in the first weeks and months of placement (Dozier & Stovall, 1997). Foster mothers were asked to indicate how their child responded to three incidences of distress each day, including when the child was hurt, frightened, and separated from the parent. Foster mothers completed a checklist and a narrative account for each incident describing the child's behavior, the foster mother's response, and the child's subsequent response. Child behaviors and maternal behaviors were then coded (child behaviors were coded as proximity seeking, avoidant, or resistant; parent responses were coded as nurturing, rejecting/passive, or rejecting/active).
For 38 foster children, foster mothers completed the diaries for 60 consecutive days beginning in the first or second week of the child's placement in the home. Children placed prior to 8 to 10 months of age typically readily showed secure behaviors (i.e., proximity seeking and calming) when placed with nurturing caregivers. However, children placed after about 10 months of age often behaved in avoidant or resistant ways when distressed (Stovall & Dozier, 2000; Stovall & Dozier, 2002; Stovall-McClough & Dozier, 2004). These insecure behaviors persisted throughout much of the 2-month period observed.
Just as important, babies' behaviors elicited complementary behaviors from their caregivers. Examining the contingency between a child's behavior and the caregiver's response, we found that secure infant behavior was followed reliably by nurturing parental behavior; avoidant child behavior was followed reliably by the caregiver behaving as if the child did not need her; and, resistant child behavior was followed reliably by "fussy" caregiver behavior.
If foster parents are to provide nurturing care to their children, they must re-interpret children's behavioral signals. It is critical that they see the neediness underlying children's behaviors, and respond to this underlying message.
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