Working on a research proposal

Above are pictures from my favorite birthday... until now! Aren't my stepdaughters lovely? And, isn't my husband handsome? He designed the cake himself, just by looking at the picture. On that day, I couldn't believe that I had gone from being rootless to having such loving connections... Seemed almost too good to be true!

This is my birthday weekend (Dec. 10th) and I am working on a research proposal focusing on foster care alumni and attachment issues.

To understand more about the issues that I will be focusing on:
http://fostercareattachment.blogspot.com

A friend of mine, who is also an alumni of foster care, has a grant to study the health care of foster care alumni, and hopes to incorporate my ideas into his study (re: mental health issues), but I need to get the information to him quickly.

Knowing that this research might actually take place and benefit foster care alumni, by helping them to navigate intimate relationships after a lifetime of interrupted attachments is the best present that I could possibly receive!

Foster Care & Attachment Issues

I'm currently doing a lot of research on foster care and attachment issues:

http://fostercareattachment.blogspot.com/

Foster Children & Eating Disorders, Part 1

Children in foster care often have very serious issues around food. This might take the form of stealing or hoarding food, refusing to eat certain foods or exhibiting an eating disorder.

Behavior does not come out of a vacuum. Rather, it stems from personal experiences and thought patterns. People behave in ways that appear logical from their perspective, even if that behavior might seem strange or even harmful to other people.

Eating Disorders and Early Insecurity
Dr. Alfonso Troisi and his colleagues have recently published a study measuring the relationship between insecure attachment/early separation anxiety and a negative body image for women. The outcome was a strong association between the two.

Children who lack a safe and secure foundation in infancy are more vulnerable to eating disorders. They are more likely to have weight concerns and low self-esteem than children with secure attachments.

Insecure Attachment
According to attachment theory, if a child is secure in his or her relationship with a caregiver, that child will feel free to explore, because he or she is confident that a secure base exists, to return to in times of need.

The secure child explores freely while the mother is present, engages with strangers, is visibly upset to see mother depart, recovers and then is happy to see her return.

The insecure child lacks that self-assurance. When a primary caregiver disappears, he or she goes through a series of three stages of emotional reactions.

1.) Protest: The baby cries and refuses to be soothed by others.
2.) Despair: The baby is sad and passive.
3.) Detachment: The baby actively disregards and avoids the parent if the parent returns.

Attachment and Self Worth
Children who have been consistently loved by their caregivers develop a perception of themselves as "loveable," whereas children who are neglected and/or rejected by a caregiver often report feeling "unworthy of love."

Early connection with the caregiver makes it possible for a child to develop a model of themselves as loveable and valued. It reassures that child that there are loving, trustworthy people available and that the world is a safe place.

Interestingly, the most damaging style of attachment is neither anxious nor avoidant, but disorganized. Avoiding pain and worrying are both active strategies for dealing with the world. Children with disorganized attachment view human interactions as erratic and unpredictable. It's difficult to plan a response to perceived chaos.

Foster Children & Eating Disorders
I plan to contact Dr. Troisi, and invite him to do a study on foster children and/or foster alumni. My rationale is the following:

-Who has more first-hand experience with separation anxiety than a foster child?
-Sexual and physical abuse are also associated with both eating disorders and foster care placement.
-Eating disorders are often an issue of control.
-Is it surprising that some foster children might use eating disorders as a way to cope with change, trauma and stress?

Sources
-Ainsworth, M. D. S., et al (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
-Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and Loss, Vol. 1: Attachment. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
-Hernandez, Jeanne (1995). "The Concurrence of Eating Disorders with Histories of Child Abuse among Adolescents." Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 4, 3: 73-85.
-Holmes, J. (1993) John Bowlby and Attachment Theory. Routledge;
-Holmes, J. (2001) The Search for the Secure Base: Attachment Theory and Psychotherapy; Brunner-Routledge;
-Miller, Katherine J. (1996). "Prevalence and Process of Disclosure of Childhood Sexual Abuse among Eating-Disordered Women." In Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders, ed. Mark F. Schwartz & Leigh Cohn, 36-51. New York, NY: Brunner/Mazel.
-Troisi, A., et al (2006). Body dissatisfaction in women with eating disorders:
relationship to early separation anxiety and insecure attachment. Psychosomatic Medicine, 68(3): 449-5.

Foster Children & Attachment

Ironically enough, just as I have been given the opportunity to be a "voice" for foster children in my upcoming trip to Seattle, I now have laryngitis. I am just praying that my voice comes back by the time I arrive on Friday!

Losing the Foster Parent
Because parental rights are prioritized, attachments between children and their foster parents are often ignored. The presumption is that the child can and will reunite with biological parents if at all possible.

Sometimes children who have been raised by birth by foster parents are sent back to biological parents who are effectively strangers to them.

Not only may children not have attached to their biological parents, but they also might have long-standing experiences of trauma with a parent. In these cases, children who have found sanctuary and built trust in a foster home are sent back to biological parents who have neglected and abused them for most of their lives.

Unfortunately, since the bond between foster parent and child is often minimalized, children who return home often do not receive supportive services to cope with the loss of the foster parent.

Meanwhile question remains: Will the biological parents maintain their progress? Or, will they fall back into old behavior patterns? It is vital in these cases to continue to monitor safety plans for the children after they return home. All too often, this does not happen.

Losing the Biological Parent
The reverse is also true. If parental custody is severed and the child is adopted, the child will still need time to grieve the loss of biological parents.

Even in the context of a loving adoptive home, with healthy meals, stimulating activities, support and resources, the child doesn't enter that home with a "blank slate."

Paradoxically, the more safe and secure the home is, the more likely the child is to grieve lost parents. Why? Because grieving is a process. Children can only begin to grieve within a safe and secure relationship.

Only within a safe, secure environment can a child:
-Face their losses
-Confront their anger
-Move past denial
-Emerge from behind a shield of detachment
-Recognize and resign themselves to the fact that any fantasies that they might have had about a reunion will not come true

This painful work usually takes place after a child enters a permanent home -- and at the very time that the social services often terminates services.

For both scenarios, follow-up services are essential. Losing either the foster or biological relationship might be very painful if the child has established a bond.

Source: Rebuilding attachments with traumatized children: Healing from losses,
violence, abuse and neglect by Richard Kagan, PhD.