Maltreated Children’s Social Understanding and Empathy: A Preliminary Exploration of Foster Carers’ Perspectives

Previous research suggests that parental abuse and neglect can have adverse effects on children’s peer relationships and self-perceptions.
Emerging theoretical and empirical work suggests that children’s social understanding and empathy could play a key role as
mediators of these effects, but we have little knowledge about the viability of such a model in explaining the everyday experiences
of children in care. Thus, in order to gain an in-depth insight into the potentiality of this conceptual model, a focus group
and detailed semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with a total of 10 foster carers. First, a thematic analysis
revealed that problematic self-perceptions and peer relationships were indeed commonplace. Crucially, in line with our theoretical
model, carers readily identified children’s difficulties with social understanding and empathy as relevant explanations for
their socio-emotional problems. Carers reported using a variety of strategies to help children, but expressed a need for a
clearer training package of practical strategies that could be used to encourage social understanding and empathy in children,
with the aim of improving their social relationships.