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Attachment: The Meeting of Hearts

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Understanding Children in Foster Care

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Abstract

Attachment theory is pivotal to understanding children in a foster care. Foster care by definition disrupts attachment relationships and insecure attachment relationships may be threatened further. Very few children in foster care are securely attached to their biological parents, and the security of the attachment relationship with foster parents predicts outcomes for the child. Children are thought to develop mental representations or ideas about relationships through the quality of their attachment relationships. Assisting foster parents to develop nurturing relationships and the conditions necessary to develop attachment security is vital. This chapter discusses attachment styles, especially disorganised attachment, the development of the child’s internal working model of relationships and the findings of attachment research in foster care.

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  1. Wellington, New Zealand

    Wendy Kelly

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Kelly, W. (2017). Attachment: The Meeting of Hearts. In: Understanding Children in Foster Care. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65376-1_4

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