Parental Visiting, Conflicting Allegiances, and Emotional and Behavioral Problems Among Foster Children^*

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that frequent parental visiting is associated with foster children's conflicting allegiances to foster families and biological parents among a random sample of 199 young adolescents placed in family foster care for longer than 1 year. Conflicting allegiances were expected to be associated with emotional and behavioral disturbance. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that frequent visitation is potentially difficult for foster children because of the loyalty conflicts that might accompany frequent visiting. These results suggest that interventions designed to reduce loyalty conflicts might improve the adaptation of high‐risk foster children.