Socio-emotional outcomes for children placed in care are more positive when foster
parents have a secure state of mind regarding attachment and are able to think about the
child's unique psychological perspective (Dozier, Stovall, Albus & Bates, 2001; Schofield &
Beek, 2005a). One aspect of parents' thinking about the child has been conceptualised as
mind-mindedness (Meins, 1998) and is measured by the proportion of mind-related
comments made when a parent is asked to describe their child. The first study examines
whether foster parent's mind-mindedness and attachment perceptions, amongst other child
and foster parent characteristics, are positively associated with the foster parent-child
relationship and the child's emotional and behavioural outcomes.
The study found that foster parents with higher mind-mindedness had foster children
with fewer behaviour problems and this relationship was enhanced by foster parents having
positive attachment perceptions. Moreover, foster parent mind-mindedness was not related to
the quality of the parent-child relationship, except when parents had positive attachment
perceptions. Regarding the child's placement characteristics, the number of previous
placements the child had experienced predicted the child's emotional and behaviour problems
and the age at which the child was placed predicted the quality of the foster parent-child
relationship. The best placement predictors of both outcome variables considered together
were the age at which the child was placed and short term placements.
