La importancia de las visitas en el acogimiento familiar

Se trata de una conferencia dentro de una Jornada.Uno de los principales fines del acogimiento familiar es que los niños no pierdan las relaciones con su familia biológica cuando éstas sean beneficiosas para los niños. Las principales funciones que se atribuyen a las visitas son: a) mantener los vínculos afectivos de los niños con sus familias biológicas; b) dar continuidad a la historia de los niños y al desarrollo de su identidad; y c) crear una relación de confianza y colaboración entre acogedores y familia biológica. Además, las visitas contribuyen a fundamentar las decisiones de los técnicos respecto a la evolución del acogimiento y a la posibilidad de retorno con la familia biológica. No obstante, numerosas investigaciones que analizan las visitas consideran que no existe una respuesta clara sobre si estos contactos son beneficiosos. El Grupo de Investigación sobre Acogimiento y Adopción de la Universidad de Málaga ha analizado las visitas de los niños acogidos con sus familias biológicas, así como las relaciones afectivas de los niños con sus padres y con sus acogedores. Los resultados ponen de relieve la necesidad de diseñar un proyecto de intervención con protocolos de actuación dirigidos a cada uno de los participantes: niños, familias biológicas, familias acogedoras y técnicos.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The voice of birth families to improve visits in foster care

In foster care, contact visits with birth families play an important role in relation to the child’s wellbeing, and they may impact on placement outcomes. However, the views of birth parents with respect to such visits have largely been unexplored. This research is part of a project financed by the regional government of Andalusia (SEJ-7106) regarding contact visits in foster care. This study aims to give voice to parents and gather their views about contact visits, including how they might be improved. Participants were 23 birth families who had contact visits with 35 children in non-kinship foster care. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted in order to explore two key aspects: the parents’ opinions regarding the contact visits and the main areas they felt needed improving. The interviews were transcribed and the transcripts were examined using an inductive method of open coding to identify themes among participants’ responses. The main themes to emerge concerned their general view of contact visits and the organization of visits. The paper discusses the study’s implications of the findings for practice.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Features of birth families with foster children in Andalusia

The aim of the presentation is to describe the personal features of biological families whose children are in non-kinship foster care and with whom they have face-to-face contact in Málaga, Granada and Jaén (provinces of Andalusia, Spain). This study was funded by the research project Application of a psychoeducational intervention program to improve visits between foster children and their biological families (Reference EDU2016 77094-P). SPSS v.21.0 was used to carry out the descriptive and frequency analysis of socio-demographic information collected by the Child File Summary Form designed for this study. The results show the difficulties experienced by birth families to deal with the responsibility of parenthood. There is a high percentage of unemployment (54.5% mothers, 46.4% fathers), and a low level of education (61.7% uneducated mothers, 68.8% uneducated fathers). Furthermore, it is necessary to consider their diverse personal problems which undermine their competences to bring up and educate their children: substance abuse, mental health issues, mental disability and prison. Finally, the lack of relation between Social Services and birth families is highlighted. Knowing the circumstances of families at psychosocial risk permits to develop social policies that match with their specific necessities, by providing them the support and resources required, in line with Recommendation Rec(2006)19 of the Committee of Ministers to member states. Moreover, children and families’ rights have to be respected, such as their right to have contact to maintain and strengthen their affective bonds as part of their identity. These findings will contribute to design: (a) family intervention programs which allow parents to acquire the necessary parental skills; (b) support and educational tools for the social workers; and (c) projects to contribute to children’s well-being.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Relationships between executive function of children in residential care and caregivers’ discipline style: a pilot study.

Despite legislative efforts to ensure that the Residential Care (RC) guarantees good care for children, there are difficulties inherent to the profile of the foster population. One of the areas affected in this population is executive functions. However, there is a lack of information on how these functions are related to other variables as affective relationships (affection/communication and criticism/rejection) and the discipline styles of caregivers. Therefore, this research aims to study these relationships. Forty-six boys and girls between 10 and 16 years old and thirty-nine caregivers from seven residential centres participated in the study. This work is a pilot study within a larger research that includes all the RC centres in the province of Malaga (Spain). BRIEF-2 Family version was used to assess executive functions, while Warmth Scale (EA) and the Rules-Demands Scale (ENE) were used to asses affection and discipline style of caregivers. The results showed that: (a) about 50% of the sample shows scores classified as high or clinically significant on all scales and indexes of executive functions, while the general Spanish population shows only 16-19% in this same categories, (b) higher scores on perceived criticism/rejection show a postive correlation with difficulties in emotional and cognitive control, and (c) an indulgent/permissive discipline style is positively correlated to cognitive control problems. These results are not conclusive, as they correspond to the pilot study phase, nevertheless they already point to the need of deeper research about the difficulties presented by the population in RC in terms of executive functions.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Propuestas de las familias acogedoras para mejorar las visitas entre los acogidos y sus familias biológicas

El objetivo general de este estudio es mejorar el funcionamiento de las visitas que mantienen los niños acogidos con su familia biológica. Para ello se pretende conocer, a través de un Grupo Focal, la opinión de las familias acogedoras. Los participantes en el Grupo Focal fueron 8 familias acogedoras de diferentes asociaciones de acogimiento familiar en Andalucía (España). Este estudio forma parte de un proyecto de investigación (SEJ-7106) sobre las visitas que mantienen los niños acogidos con su familia biológica. Se obtuvo la autorización por escrito del Servicio de Protección de Menores (SPM), las Asociaciones, y las familias acogedoras para participar en el grupo focal y grabar las sesiones. Para analizar los datos se transcribió la grabación del Grupo Focal y la información fue exportada al programa ATLAS.ti v7.0 software. Se utilizó un método inductivo de código abierto para identificar las respuestas de cada participante. Los resultados mostraron los aspectos positivos, las dificultades, y las propuestas para mejorar el funcionamiento de las visitas. Las conclusiones señalan los siguientes aspectos de mejora: ofrecer mayor información, preparación y apoyo a los niños, la familia biológica y la familia acogedora, mayor colaboración entre la familia biológica y la acogedora, mejorar el lugar donde se realizan las visitas, diversificar el tipo de contactos, adaptar la frecuencia y duración de las visitas a cada caso, tener en cuenta el deseo del niño al establecer las visitas, tener más personal y mayor financiación, y adaptar más las visitas a las necesidades específicas de cada niño.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Foster care profiles: A guide to identifying at-risk placements

Research on foster care shows a growing interest in knowing what factors exert influence on success or failure of the placements. Several studies have analysed the variables that influence the outcome of family foster care. The main variables addressed by these studies were behaviour problems and impulsivity/inattention in foster children, warmth/communication, parenting style, and level of burden in the foster parents. This study aimed to determine whether distinct profiles can be identified among foster placements with common characteristics, and also sought to define a predictive function for the success or failure of foster care. Participants included foster children and their respective foster families. The sample comprised 104 non-kinship foster children in long-term foster care (56 boys and 48 girls) whose mean age at the time of data collection was 11 years. These children were being fostered in 86 families, corresponding to 71 foster fathers and 86 foster mothers. Access to foster families and information about the foster placements was authorized and provided by the Child Protection Agency in Andalusia (Spain). A quantitative methodology was used during both the collection and the data analysis. A k-means cluster analysis identified three clusters, corresponding to high-, moderate-, and low-risk placements. The variables that formed part of these clusters were behaviour problems and impulsivity/inattention in foster children, level of burden in the foster parents, an authoritarian parenting style, and criticism/rejection by the foster parents. A discriminant analysis confirmed the differences between the three clusters and enabled us to create a function for classifying cases in each group. These results can be used to identify at-risk placements and may help to avoid situations that could undermine the foster child’s development. The findings could also be useful in terms of assessing the suitability of foster families, as well for identifying their training needs.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Affection and disciplinary style perceived by children in residential care: relationships with quality standards in residential care.

Residential foster care is still an essential resource to protect children. In Spain there are 16,000 children in residential care, therefore it is necessary to continue improving quality in residential childcare. This study analyzed how foster children and youth perceive the quality of care in the residential home, the affective relationships (affection/communication and criticism/rejection) and the discipline style of caregivers. Also studied was the relationship between quality of the residential home and with affection and disciplinary style. Forty-six boys and girls aged between 10 and 16 years old, from seven residential centers in Malaga (Spain), participated in the study. An ad hoc questionnaire based on the Quality Standards (EQUAR) was created to evaluate quality of care in the residential home. Warmth Scale (EA) and the Rules-Demands Scale (ENE) were used to asses affection and discipline style of caregivers. The results showed that: 1) foster children evaluate the quality of care positively, 2) they perceive more affection/communication than criticism/rejection by the caregivers and, mostly, inductive and authoritarian discipline, 3) when they perceive more affection/communication (and less criticism/rejection) and more inductive styles, they also evaluate with higher scores the quality of the foster home. These results show that children and youth perceive the quality of care provided in residential care programs positively, and perceive higher quality care, when they perceive more affection, less rejection, and more appropriate discipline styles. Future studies could provide information on whether the quality of care influences the affective relationships and the discipline styles displayed by caregivers.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Programa de preparación de las familias biológicas y acogedoras para mejorar la calidad de las visitas

Tras la trayectoria del grupo de investigación en acogimiento familiar, se pone de manifiesto la necesidad de mejorar la calidad de las visitas entre los niños en acogimiento con familia ajena y su familia biológica. En concreto, se pretende diseñar y aplicar un programa de intervención psicoeducativa de preparación y apoyo dirigido a las familias biológicas y las familias acogedoras. Este trabajo forma parte de un Proyecto de Excelencia I+D (EDU2016 77094-P), financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, titulado "Aplicación de un programa de intervención psicoeducativa para mejorar las visitas entre los niños acogidos y sus familias biológicas". Los participantes en el estudio son: a) las familias biológicas que mantienen contactos con los niños que se encuentran en acogimiento con familia ajena; b) las familias acogedoras de dichos menores, y c) los técnicos responsables de la supervisión de las visitas. Se realizará un diseño pretest-intervención-postest y la intervención se desarrollará en 7 sesiones de forma consecutiva, con la periodicidad que establezca el régimen de contactos de cada familia. Esta intervención consiste en una propuesta sistemática y organizada que establece de forma secuencial los principales contenidos a tratar en la preparación de las visitas. Algunas de las temáticas a abordar con las familias biológicas son aprender a transmitir mensajes adecuados a los niños, proponer los tipos de regalos y juguetes que pueden llevar a las visitas, entrenarles en habilidades específicas de comunicación, entre otras. En el caso de las familias acogedoras se pretende mostrar la importancia de preparar al niño acogido para las visitas con su familia biológica, comprender y ayudar a los niños acogidos a expresar las emociones que les producen los contactos con sus familiares, analizar las posibles dificultades que puedan provocar las visitas en el desarrollo de la vida familiar de los acogedores, etc

A review of EQUAR (Quality Standards in Residential Care): a guide to professional practice

Introducción. El Acogimiento Residencial (AR) sigue siendo un recurso indispensable para la protección de la infancia en España, por lo que es prioritario velar por su buen funcionamiento para garantizar el bienestar de los menores acogidos. Para ello se requiere de un marco de evaluación y actuación profesional que garantice la calidad en la gestión y atención de los centros de protección de menores. Metodología. Se realizó una revisión de los principales documentos (guías y/o protocolos), legislaciones y otros recursos, tanto nacionales como internacionales, a partir de los que se desarrollaron los Estándares de Calidad en Acogimiento Residencial (EQUAR). La recopilación y el análisis de los datos comprendió dos etapas: (1) revisión de los documentos y legislaciones mencionadas con el fin de determinar en qué medida seguían estando vigentes y/o eran aplicables, y (2) comparación de los estándares del EQUAR con las leyes nacionales y autonómicas vigentes actualmente en España. Resultados. La mayoría de los documentos y marcos legales en los que se basaba el EQUAR se han renovado desde entonces y ya no están vigentes o son aplicables. Por ello, aunque el EQUAR sigue siendo una guía útil para evaluar la calidad de los centros residenciales en España, es necesario revisar y actualizar algunos de sus estándares para adecuarlos a la legislación vigente y a las versiones más recientes de documentos sobre los que se elaboró. Así, existen actualizaciones y novedades que afectan a diferentes ámbitos relacionados con el bienestar de la infancia y adolescencia acogida. Discusión y Conclusiones. La actualización y uso del EQUAR para desarrollar herramientas de evaluación específicas para la gestión de los centros, ayudaría a orientar la práctica profesional y a proporcionar criterios estandarizados para la gestión y la evaluación de la calidad del AR en España. Con este trabajo se ofrece un punto de partida que pueda servir de orientación profesional para la mejora de la calidad en el acogimiento residencial.Introduction. Residential care continues to be a key component of child protection services in Spain. Ensuring that the care provided is of high quality is therefore crucial for the children’s wellbeing. A framework of professional evaluation and performance is necessary to guarantee a high standard of management and care in child protection centres. Method. We conducted a review of the major national and international documents, regulations and resources that underpin the Quality Standards in Residential Care (EQUAR). The data collection and analysis involved two stages: (1) a review of documents and legislation to determine the extent to which they remain applicable or in force; and (2), a comparison of the EQUAR with current national and regional legislation in Spain. Results. Many of the documents and regulations on which the EQUAR was based have been updated and are no longer applicable. Moreover, although the EQUAR remains useful to guide the evaluation of the quality of residential care provision in Spain, some of its standards need to be revised and updated to bring them into line with current legislation and the most recent versions of key documents. These updates relate to different aspects of residential care for children and adolescents. Discussion and Conclusions. Updating and using the EQUAR to develop specific tools that could be applied by managers of residential care facilities would help to guide professional practice and provide standardised criteria for evaluating the quality of residential care in Spain. This work offers a starting point that can serve as a professional orientation for the improvement of residential care quality

Active commuting is associated with a lower risk of obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome in Chilean adults

Background: There is limited evidence on how active commuting is associated with health benefits in developing countries. The aim of this study therefore was to investigate the associations between active commuting and markers of adiposity and cardiometabolic risk in the Chilean adult population. Methods: In total, 5157 participants from the Chilean National Health Survey 2009–10 were included in this cross-sectional study. Active commuting was measured using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ v2). Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were measured and used to define obesity and central obesity. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and metabolic syndrome were determined using WHO and updated ATPIII-NCEP criteria, respectively. Results: The main finding of this study is that a 30 min increase in active commuting is associated with lower odds for BMI > 25.0 kg m−2 (0.93 [95% CI: 0.88–0.98, P = 0.010]). Similarly, the odds for central obesity was 0.87 [0.82–0.92, P < 0.0001]. Similar associations were found for T2D (0.81 [0.75–0.88], P < 0.0001) and metabolic syndrome (OR: 0.86 [0.80–0.92], P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Our findings show that active commuting is associated with lower adiposity and a healthier metabolic profile including lower risk for obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome