Losing a child to the Child Protective Services : biological parents memory of the removal and psychological problems in planned versus acute removals

Abstract

Background: Every year 427 children in Norway are removed from their biological parents and placed in alternate care settings. The removal of a child is a severe intervention in a child s and a family s life. Today, practical nothing is known about how the parents are doing after they have lost their children in regard to their memory of the potential traumatizing situation (e.g., the removal). An underlying assumption of this thesis is that it is in the child s best interests that their parents are taken care of in short and long while. Objective: This study specifically sought to investigate the parent s memory of the removal of their child and psychological problems before and after this stressful event. Based on general theory it was hypothesized that due to the high personal impact of the event, memory would in general be good. Further, arousal and emotional valence would additionally affect memory. It was also predicted that there would be differences between those being removed acute versus planned in regard to memory and problems after the removal. Results: Confirming established theories in the field, findings suggested that arousal had a positive effect on memory for central event information, but negative effect on peripheral event information. It was found specific associations between emotional valence and memory. Significant relationship was also found between emotional valence and problems after the removal in planned versus acute removals. Conclusion: The findings were compared to existing theories of memory for negative emotional events and implications of the findings are discussed.