Frequent, regular parent–child visitation of children in foster care is crucial in maintaining the attachment relationship of the parent and child. Further, the parent–child attachment concept is crucial for permanency planning because it is the rationale behind the goal of providing children with a stable and continuous relationship with the parent or another caretaker, if that child cannot return to the care of the parent. In order to ascertain whether protective services workers recognize and emphasize the importance of maintaining parent–child or other attachment relationships, the author studied closed case records of children who had experienced foster-care placement. Results are discussed in the context of social-attachment theory.
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