This article follows on from ‘How children in foster care engage with loyalty conflict: presenting a model of processes informing loyalty’ (Dansey, John and Shbero, 2018), published in the previous edition of this journal. This model highlighted the themes of stigma and secrecy for children in care, which it was felt warranted further consideration in their own right. The current article shares further quotations from the children in relation to these themes, which add to the evidence of what children are saying in relation to stigma and bullying. Most importantly, it presents this topic in a manner that stimulates thought around the implications of what children are saying for their broader mental health and resilience and what might therefore be most supportive. Children in foster care are subject to stigma in relation to being in care and not living with their birth parents. The impact of this is important to explore, especially for those who already experience higher levels of disadvantage than other children. Themes of stigma and secrecy emerged from a recent grounded theory study that was conducted with 15 children and young people in foster care (Dansey, John and Shbero, 2018). These quotations highlighted how stigma was being internalised by children, how they had experienced, or believed that their care status would lead to, bullying and how some of them described keeping their foster care status a secret as a result. This article seeks to share the voices of these children, look at the existing literature in this area and consider the possible impact that stigma and secrecy may have on them. Implications for practice are discussed and the need for more targeted research is highlighted.

中文翻译：

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保守秘密：寄养儿童如何应对污名化

本文继本杂志上一版发表的“寄养儿童如何参与忠诚冲突：展示告知忠诚的过程模型”（Dansey、John 和 Shbero，2018 年）之后。该模型突出了受照料儿童的耻辱和保密主题，认为这本身就值得进一步考虑。当前文章分享了孩子们与这些主题相关的更多引文，这进一步证明了孩子们所说的与污名和欺凌有关的内容。最重要的是，它以一种激发思考儿童所说的话对他们更广泛的心理健康和适应力的影响以及因此可能最有帮助的方式提出了这个主题。寄养儿童因被寄养而不与亲生父母同住而受到污名化。探索这种影响很重要，特别是对于那些已经比其他孩子处于更高劣势的人。耻辱和保密的主题来自最近对 15 名寄养儿童和年轻人进行的扎根理论研究（Dansey、John 和 Shbero，2018 年）。这些引文突出了儿童如何将耻辱感内化，他们如何经历或相信他们的照顾状态会导致欺凌，以及他们中的一些人如何描述如何将他们的寄养身份保密。本文旨在分享这些儿童的声音，查看该领域的现有文献，并考虑污名和保密可能对他们产生的影响。