The psychological parenting and permanency principles in child welfare: a reappraisal and critique

The psychological parenting and permanency of care principles address important problems in child welfare. The focus of the theories, however, draws attention away from the underlying cause of family stress, and may serve to validate child welfare departments' failures to respond to that stress in the context of the family. It is suggested that aspects of the theories are overly mechanistic, and that there exists a substantial subset of child welfare clients for whom they are not relevant.