The Children Act 1989 recognises and encourages continuing contact between children and their birth families. But are contact arrangements being used as a covert means of assessment rather than to support parents and children in maintaining their emotional bonds? Nick Banks examines the social and psychological implications of contact between children and their birth parents, focusing particularly on the needs of black children in contact planning considerations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AhmedS, in Social Work with Black Children and their Families, AhmedSCheethamJSmallJ (eds), BAAF/Batsford, 1986
2.
AinsworthM DBellSStaytonP, ‘Individual Differences in Strange Situation Behaviour of One Year Olds’, in The Origins of Human Social Relations, Academic Press, 1971
3.
AinsworthM DBleharM CWaltersEWallS, Patterns of Attachment, Hillsdale NJErlbaum, 1978
4.
AinsworthM D, Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation, Hillsdale NJ Erlbaum, 1979
5.
BarnR, Black Children in the Public Care System, BAAF/Batsford, 1993
6.
BelskyJRovineMTaylorD G,‘The Pennsylvania and Family Development Project III: The origins of individual differences in infant mother attachment — maternal and infant contributions’, Child Development55, 1984
7.
BowlbyJ, The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds, Tavistock Routledge, 1979
8.
BowlbyJ, Maternal Care and Mental Health, World Health Organisation, Monograph (Serial Number 2), 1951
9.
CharlesMRashidSThoburnJ, ‘The placement of black children with permanent new families’, Adoption & Fostering163,1992
10.
Collins Concise Dictionary, William Collins & Son, 1988
11.
DoH, The Care of Children: Principles and Practice in Regulations and Guidance, HMSO, 1989
12.
DoH, The Children Act: Guidance and Regulations, Vols. 1–10, HMSO, 1991
13.
DominelliL, Anti Racist Social Work, BASW Macmillan Education, 1988
14.
GillOJacksonB, Adoption and Race: Black, Asian and Mixed Race Children in White Families, Batsford, 1983
HeinickeC MWestheimerI, Brief Separations, New York, International Universities Press, 1966
17.
HetheringtonECoxMCoxR, ‘Long Term Effects of Divorce and Remarriage on the Adjustment of Children’, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry24, 1985
18.
LittenbergRTulkinSKaganJ, ‘Cognitive Components of Separation Anxiety’, Developmental Psychology, 1971
19.
Marsh and Fisher cited in VernonJFruinD, In Care: a study of social work decision making, National Children's Bureau, 1989
20.
MillhamSBullockRHosieKLittleM, Lost in Care: The Problem of Maintaining Links Between Children in Care and their Families, Gower, 1986
21.
PattersonG R, ‘Stress: A change agent for family process’, in Stress, Coping and Development in Children, GarmezyNRutterM (eds), John Hopkins University Press, 1988
22.
PearsonJ LHunterA GEnsmingerM EKellamS G, ‘Black Grandmothers in Multigeneration Households: Diversity in Family Structure and Parenting Involvement in the Woodlawn Community’, Child Development61, 1990
23.
RobertsonJBowlbyJ, Responses of Young Children to Separation from their Mothers, Courier of the International Children's Centre Paris 2, 1952
24.
RobertsonJRobertsonJ, ‘Young children in brief separation’, Psychoanalytic Study of the Child26, 1971
25.
RoweJLambertL, Children Who Wait, ABAA, 1973
26.
RoweJCainHHundlebyMKeaneA, Long Term Foster Care, BAAF/Batsford, 1984
27.
RutterM, Helping Troubled Children, Penguin, 1975
28.
SmallJ in Transracial Placements: Conflicts and Contradictions in Social Work with Black Children and their Families, AhmedACheethamCSmallJ (eds), Batsford, 1986
29.
SroufeL AWatersEMatasL, ‘Contextual Determinants of Infant Affectional Response’ in The Origins of Fear, NY Wiley, 1974
30.
VernonJFruinD, In Care: A Study of Social Work Decision Making, National Children's Bureau, 1986
31.
WilsonM N, ‘The black extended family: An analytical consideration’, Developmental Psychology22, 1986
