Current findings placed in the context of contemporary research literature

It is not possible to place the findings of this study fully in the context of specific contemporary literature because there is to date no controlled research examining both maltreated children’s and adult caregivers’ views of the child’s psychological well-being. However, from a general child welfare perspective, the distressing care histories of many children since CCCT assessment are consistent with previous research which has documented the multiple placements experienced by many children within the child care system (Berridge & Cleaver, 1987; Cooper et al, 1987; Holloway, 1997b, Jellinek et al, 1992; Jellinek et al, 1995).

From an epidemiological standpoint, the greater prevalence of depressive disturbance reported by female participants is consistent with previous research (Finch et al, 1985). The high prevalence of child psychopathology reported by both children and their primary caregivers supports previous child maltreatment research (Benedict et al, 1996; Cantos et al, 1996; Garland et al, 1996; Toth & Cicchetti, 1996). Moreover, caregivers’ reports that a significant minority of children were physically disciplined supports the view that this population is particularly vulnerable to further maltreatment (Benedict et al, 1994; Benedict et al, 1996; Jellinek et al, 1995). The no or vague educational/occupational aspirations described by many children in care are consistent with previous child abuse and neglect research (Kurtz et al, 1993).

Although it is not possible to fully place the findings of this study within the child maltreatment literature, children in care’s perceptions of the court proceedings and current lives are consistent with those reported in a larger U.S study of foster children (Ruff Johnson et al, 1995). Approximately 40% of children in both the Ruff Johnson et al and current study reported confusion about the circumstances precipitating them entering care. More than half the children in both samples gave an incoherent account of their care histories. Although children’s view of the court proceedings were not directly assessed within the Ruff Johnson et al study, 58% of children reported that it was positive that child protective services sometimes removed children fi'om their homes. Within the

Many children in the Ruff Johnson et al study described missing biological parents most of the time. In the current study, the overwhelming majority of children in care expected continued contact with their biological families during adulthood. Based on the present research evidence, a preliminary conclusion can be reached that many children in care experience much confusion about their past and future lives. Moreover, many children in care have a negative view of court proceedings several years after their conclusion. This confusion and negative cognitive perception of the care proceedings can be hypothesised to adversely affect children’s current psychological well-being.

The current study can also be interpreted with reference to a large-scale national study of physically abused children using the Family Health and Development Schedule (Gibbons et al, 1995). A positive relationship was found between a parenting style consisting of critical comments, physical forms of chastisement and punitiveness and physically maltreated children’s behaviour problems. The parent interview used in this study was a specially adapted form of the Family Health and Development Schedule.

The current study found that children’s reported acceptance of the care proceedings was positively correlated with caregivers’ parent interview accounts of children’s psychological adjustment. Moreover, caregivers’ SDQ ratings of children’s externalising

psychological well-being on the parent interview. Interestingly, this study can therefore be interpreted as providing preliminary evidence that caregivers’ reports of the child’s psychological well-being on the parent interview are associated with both children’s acceptance of court proceedings and caretakers’ perceptions of the child’s behavioural adjustment on the SDQ.

There is a paucity of research examining both children’s and primary caregivers’ views of the child’s psychological adjustment that presents difficulties in fully contextualising this research within empirical and clinical research literature. However, the findings of this exploratory study can be interpreted with reference to several general psychology paradigms. At a conceptual level, this study can be posited as further demonstrating the role of maltreated children’s cognitive processing abilities in mediating their psychological adjustment (Rogosch et al, 1995). Children in care describing a negative cognitive processing of the care proceedings was related to caregivers’ ratings of children’s behavioural maladjustment.

Children’s view of the court proceedings can be interpreted with reference to cognitive dissonance theory. Cognitive dissonance theory has been applied to the understanding of psychological adjustment problems in a range of clinical domains.

The experience of care proceedings for maltreated children can be postulated to produce a range of conflicting feelings. Children in care may feel relieved that the abuse has ended but distressed as a consequence of separation from their biological family and possibly experiencing multiple placements within the care system. Children will probably experience a range of positive and negative feelings towards both substitute caregivers and biological parents. Children may feel confused about which attachment figures to identify with and experience considerable inner conflict and turmoil. In order to reduce this dissonance, some children may perceive the care proceedings as a positive intervention that ended a distressing period of their lives. Indeed, it was the author’s impression that some of the children interviewed described a more positive account of the care proceedings than could be justified by their current life circumstances. Alternatively, some children may perceive the court proceedings negatively as an unwarranted invasion that resulted in family breakdown. The developmental pathway which children choose to reduce cognitive dissonance resulting from care proceedings is probably influenced by several factors including maltreatment history, psychological resources, availability of attachment figures, and experiences in the child care system. Indeed, preliminary evidence emerged from this study that children in residential care and/or who had experienced multiple placements were more likely to view the court decision negatively than were the remainder of the care sample.

Moreover, children’s view of the care proceedings can be interpreted with reference to attribution theory. Children’s attributional styles for psychologically understanding the care proceedings can be hypothesised to influence their current psychological well-being. Preliminary evidence to indicate the importance of children’s attributional styles about past care proceedings for their current psychological well-being emerged from the finding that children who blamed themselves for the care proceedings were significantly more likely to report clinically significant depressive symptomatology. Intuitively it would be expected that children who attribute blame to themselves for the care proceedings, a traumatic experience in their lives, and who continue to ruminate on these negative thoughts several years later would more frequently experience depressive distress.