Separation Revisited

First published in 1992, this book draws on attachment theory to offer a framework for understanding adolescents’ reactions to the experience of being fostered. It discusses the three-way relationship between adolescents, their birth families and their foster families. The experiences of joining a new school or finding work, going missing and returning, and leaving the foster family at the end of the placement are explored. It identifies aspects of family functioning which appear to be helpful or unhelpful to fostered adolescents and considers the functioning of the wider care system and the role of professionals in it. The book is grounded in the day-to-day experiences of twenty-three families who fostered adolescents who would previously have been considered ‘unfosterable’. These experiences were vividly expressed by the adolescents and foster families and provide rich illustrative material.