Knowing Me, Knowing You

: Exploring the role of parental sensitivity and mentalization in relationships where adoptive children display aggression and violence and evaluating the impact of a parenting program to support these families.

Abstract

Adoptive families often report aggressive behaviour and violence exhibited by some of the children. Using a mixed method methodology, this thesis focuses on a promising novel group parenting intervention for adoptive families who experience violence and aggression from their children and uses theories of Attachment, Parental Sensitivity and Mentalizing to explore the data. Participants were 35 adults with 53 adoptive children aged 4-12 years old referred to the program by adoption support services. The first two studies examined quantitative changes in parental sensitivity, parental reflective functioning, parental stress, parent child relationship and child behaviours both around the intervention and in the longer term. These are then followed by three qualitative studies: The third study used a single case study design to examine the process of change for one participant. The fourth study used Reflexive Thematic Analysis to explore participant’s experience of the intervention. The final study used Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to explore the experience of adoptive fathers whose children display aggression and violence. Findings showed a significant improvement in parental sensitivity and reflective functioning and a significant reduction in parental stress after the intervention. The quality of the parent-child relationship was also significantly improved, however the findings around child behaviours were more mixed with some improvements not reaching statistical significance. Qualitative findings showed positive change attributed to the intervention, illustrated the process of change for one participant, showed the positive experience of intervention participants plus brought deeper understanding to the under researched area of adoptive fatherhood where children display aggression and violence. Collectively the findings build on previous understanding of the relationship between parental sensitivity, parental reflective functioning, parental stress and displays of child behaviours while also filling gaps of knowledge around the experiences of this population group plus interventions to support them. These findings have important implications for adoptive families and professionals working with them, especially where there is display of violence and aggression from the children.

Date of Award	21 Jan 2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Cecilia Essau (Director of Studies) & Ben Grey (Co-Supervisor)