Research Library

Brief review of the neuroscientific findings that illuminate whether and how adverse early caregiving experiences impact on brain development and poor socioemotional outcomes in children in care, and how such evidence informs our understanding of attachment outcomes in this population.

When given identical information, mental health professionals were less likely to diagnose a child in care (vs. a child not in care) with PTSD. Related to this lesser detection of PTSD, mental health professionals were also less likely to choose NICE-recommended PTSD treatments for a child in care.

We found evidence of poorer cognitive control for young people in care compared to their peers, however this was not worsened in affective contexts. Contrary to hypotheses, this deficit was not related to emotion regulation, mental health difficulties, or school well-being for young people in care.

There are opportunities and challenges in the delivery of online therapeutic services, particularly those with a group format. This paper contributes initial reflections to what we hope will be a rapidly developing literature on best practice of supporting group services in an online format.

This study investigated the link between a foster carer's ability to mentalize and how this impacted on the emotional regulation of a child they care for. It used detailed analysis of video recordings of interactions between one foster carer and one child in their care. This study used data from a project called the Relationship Stories study, that is part of the Reflective Fostering Study funded by the NIHR.

This trial is the first experimental study of a family therapeutic intervention based on attachment theory for foster families within the Scandinavian context.

This trial is the first experimental study of a family therapeutic intervention based on attachment theory for foster families within the Scandinavian context. Authors: Thorup Dalgaard, N., Villumsen, A.M.A., Sørensen, K.M., Midgley, N., Væver, M.S., Almlund M., & Pontoppidan, M. (2023).

The purpose of this study is to describe the development of the 14-item reflective fostering fidelity rating (RFFR), an observational rating system to evaluate model fidelity of group facilitators in the Reflective Fostering Programme (RFP), a mentalisation-based psychoeducation programme to support foster carers. Authors: Midgley, N., Cirasola, A., Sprecher, E.A., Redfern, S., Wright, H., Rider, B. & Martin, P. (2023).

One of the most well-documented sequelae of early maltreatment and institutionalisation is attachment problems, including behaviours under the labels of reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED). Despite growing evidence of the neurobiological effects of institutionalisation, the neural correlates of these behavioural patterns are largely unknown. Authors: Oliveira, P. S., Fearon, P, Belsky, J., Mesquita, A., Sampaio, A., Pinal, D., Soares, I. (2022).