Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 May 3;13(5):e0196685.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196685. eCollection 2018.

Protecting the child while preserving the relationship: Using baby's relational withdrawal to gauge the effect of parental visitation

Alexandra Deprez  1 , Jaqueline Wendland  1 , Line Brotnow  2 , Arno C Gutleb  3 , Servane Contal  3 , Antoine Guédeney  4   5
Affiliations

Protecting the child while preserving the relationship: Using baby's relational withdrawal to gauge the effect of parental visitation

Alexandra Deprez et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The impact of children's interactions with parents in the context of out-of-home placements is receiving much-needed cross-disciplinary attention. However, the paucity of instruments that can reliably represent young children's experiences of such interactions precludes a nuanced evaluation of their impact on wellbeing and development. In response to this empirical gap, the present study investigates children's relational withdrawal as a clinically salient, easily observable and conceptually valid measure of infants' and toddlers' responses to parents. Relational withdrawal, challenging behaviors and salivary cortisol were assessed before, during and after parental visits. Conceptually, the findings suggest that observations of relational withdrawal correlate meaningfully with measure of neurobiological reactivity. Clinically, three profiles of cross-variable responses in children appeared, distinguishing between groups that experience increased, decreased or unchanged levels of stress in response to parental visits. Taken together, the findings lend empirical support to systematic observations of relational withdrawal to bolster evaluations of young children's experience of parental visitation during out-of-home placements.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Data collection scheme.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Estimated marginal means (logarithmic) for reaction profiles and repeated measures ADBB scores including age and duration of placement as covariates.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Estimated marginal means of salivary cortisol by group of relational withdrawal.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Estimated marginal means of salivary cortisol as a function of reaction profile (interaction).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Miron D., Bisaillon C., Jordan B., Bryce G., Gauthier Y., St-André M., & Minnis H. Whose Rights Count? Negotiating Practice, Policy, and Legal Dilemmas Regarding Infant-Parent Contact When Infants are in Out-of-Home Care. Infant Mental Health Journal, 2013, 34(2), 177–188. http://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21381 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Triseliotis J. Contact between Looked after Children and Their Parents: A Level Playing Field? Adoption & Fostering, 2010, 34(3), 59–66. http://doi.org/10.1177/030857591003400311 - DOI
    1. Tottenham N. The importance of early experiences for neuro-affective development In The Neurobiology of Childhood (pp. 109–129). Springer; Berlin Heidelberg: 2014 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berger M. L'échec de la protection de l’enfance. Paris: Dunod; p.264,2004
    1. Barnum R. Understanding Controversies in Visitation. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 1987, 26(5), 788–792. - PubMed

MeSH terms