Foster mothers' attachment styles and children's attachment security in middle childhood: a mixed-methods study of the Turkish foster family service model

Attachment theory predicts that a caregiver's own attachment organization shapes the security of the child in their care, but the evidence comes almost entirely from biological parent-infant dyads. Whether it extends to a caregiving relationship with no shared genetic history, no shared infancy, and a competing attachment figure still present is largely untested, particularly in middle childhood, when children can report on the relationship themselves. This study examined whether the attachment security of children aged 9-12 in foster care is associated with their foster mother's attachment style, with the age at which they entered protection, and with the frequency of contact with their birth family, and explored how foster mothers and children describe those relationships. In this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, 314 foster mother-child dyads across eight Turkish provinces, 13.2% of the eligible national population, completed the Relationship Scales Questionnaire and the Kerns Security Scale. In-depth interviews with 10 foster mothers sampled across all four attachment classifications, and their 10 children, were analysed thematically. Children's security differed by foster mother attachment style, F(3, 310) = 13.16, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.113, 90% CI [0.058, 0.164]; children of securely attached foster mothers scored higher than children of fearful (d = 0.83), preoccupied (d = 0.76) and dismissing (d = 0.78) foster mothers. Security was also higher among children placed at or before age three, F(2, 311) = 4.34, p = 0.014, η2 = 0.027, and differed by contact frequency, F(4, 309) = 2.56, p = 0.039, η2 = 0.032, although this effect did not survive Bonferroni correction and the pattern was non-monotonic rather than linear: children with no contact scored as high as those with monthly contact. No exploratory comparison survived correction. Four foster mother themes and three child themes converged with this pattern, and the children's metaphors, safe harbour, guide and light, protective shield, and loving from the heart, described a functioning secure base. The caregiver's own attachment organization was associated with several times more variance in children's security than either placement history or contact frequency, which supports attachment-informed assessment and support of foster carers.