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Article History

Received: 6 February 2023

Accepted: 20 February 2023

First Online: 7 March 2023

Declarations

:

: This trial will be carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Institutional review board approval was obtained from VIVE The Danish Center for Social Science Research’s internal ethics review board. According to Danish law, the trial does not need approval from the Danish National Committee on Health Research Ethics. Participation will be voluntary and based on informed consent from foster parents and foster children aged 15 or older. Younger children will be informed about the intervention and the data collection in an age-appropriate manner. Biological parents with legal custody of children will also be asked for consent. However, based on legislation in Denmark, municipalities may assess the unique situation of the child, and in some cases, the municipalities can decide not to ask for consent from the biological parents of children placed in foster care if this is deemed necessary for the stability of the placement and thus in the best interest of the child. We will pay special attention to conducting the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP) with children aged 4–9 years old. As some children in this age group may not be verbally well-articulated, we will pay special attention to the children's non-verbal communication and how it may signal a wish not to participate or to discontinue the assessment. When conducting the SSAP, we may come across children who spontaneously divulge information that causes serious concern for their development and well-being, or we may observe foster parent behavior that we deem to be potentially harmful to the children. If this happens, we will notify the child protection authorities in accordance with Danish law.

: Not applicable.

: Prof. Midgley, from the Anna Freud Centre, has been involved with the development of mentalization-based treatments for children, young people and families, and provides training in MBT-C as part of his role at the Anna Freud Centre. He is also involved in evaluations of various mentalization-based interventions for children and young people, including several feasibility studies and randomized controlled trials. All training fees, grants, and contracts are directed to the Anna Freud Centre to partially provide salary support. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.