The aim of this study is to investigate foster parents' experiences of being a foster parent. It examines the factors surrounding a placement that stand out in the stories. From an emotional sociological perspective, it examines the foster parents' feelings about the placement and how they feel that they can support and meet the child's needs. The purpose is investigated through a qualitative content analysis of two autobiographies, written by foster parents. Previous research shows that children often sit on trauma linked to previous experiences of lack of care, violence or neglect in the home. Trauma stresses the brain and can lead to later emotional, behavioral and cognitive development for the child. Environmental support can help the child to have resilience, partly through support from the family home. Research shows high stress levels in family homes and emphasizes support and education for a high chance of a successful placement. The child often has a relationship with the biological parent that is fraught with anxiety for them to feel good. Their contact is greatly affected by the family home and the biological parent's ability to maintain contact. The results of the study landed in five themes of distinctive features from the books. "Emotions in relation to the child", "Strategies", "Impact on the family", "Connection to the child's biological parents" and "Support". The foster parents show a lot of feelings concerning the children. They strive to do what is best for the child. The goal of helping is close to their heart. This causes the emotions to fluctuate between good self-esteem and bad depending on the child's feelings and behavior. The foster parents experience that it is energy-intensive but that they succeed in meeting the children's needs to a certain extent. They have their clear idea of ​​what the child needs in terms of boundaries, patience and love. A lot of energy is spent trying to understand the children and meet the needs that exist. The relationship with the biological parents also turns out to be a big part of their everyday life. Emotions surrounding the biological parents are manifested in the form of empathy but also restrained anger and concern for the children.

BLÁHOVÁ, J. The Most Frequent Causes of Failure of Foster Care in the Czech Republic 15 Years ago and Today. Prague: Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, 2012, 114 pp. Diploma Thesis. The aim of my diploma thesis was to map the main cause which take part in premature end of foster care in our country. I have recorded this problematic since the year 1996 up to now. I have focused on definition and forms of foster care. Further on the process of its arrangement and the starting conditions which have an influence on foster care. I have introduced and compared the results of two big Czech studies which were devoted in this topic and were published in the interval of 15 years. Besides the failure cause of foster care on the foster parents side and children entrusted into a foster care and the system of alternative family care I have also focused on factors which contributes to its success on the other hand. In the practical part I have tried to get more deeply into the cause of foster care failure from the view of social workers from OSPOD. I was interested in what and how influences the foster care failure, how the system components of alternative family care and which changes social workers see as needed in the support of foster care success. It has been shown that the causes of its...

My thesis, "The Transformation of the Media-Image for Children's Systems of Care" analyzes the system of care for vulnerable children in the Czech Republic, specifically how Act. No 359/1999 Coll. transforms the the socio-legal protection of children. The amendment aims to reform services inthe area of preventive action: the legislation prioritizes the family as the best environment for the child. Under this amendment, a child is placed in institutional care only as a last resort. Additionally, the amendment also professionalizes and standardizes the social-legal protection of children. Transforming a bureaucratic system is always a political process in which different actors are involved, who aim to implement new policies promoting their best interests. The aim of this paper is to describe the image of Czech households in the media depicted by policy actors, and how these images consequently transformed the system of care for vulnerable children. For this purpose, content analysis of media communication, ranging from print media, television networks, radio stations, and websites, and the other complementary methods were applied. The theoretical anchors are grounded in foundational concepts of public policy (public policy network theory) and media sciences (agenda setting theory of media...

The diploma thesis "Adolescent in Foster Care" deals with an adolescent growing up in foster care, with regard to the development of one's identity. The theoretical part includes preview on adolescent, foster care, identity and also the issues of deprivation. The research part is focused on opinion and attitudes of adolescents to issues like children's biological family, foster family and identity, as well as attitudes of foster parents to identical topics. Keywords Adolescent, foster care, deprivation, identity,

The diploma thesis discusses the issue of kinship foster care, its specifics, strengths and weaknesses. It examines the views of grandparents, aunties, uncles and other relatives on their role in foster care and the children's life. The theoretical part is focused on basic topics in foster care, views on foster care and the development of children living in foster care. The practical part of the thesis is focused on semi-structured interviews with care givers which should tell us facts about their views of foster care, why children are placed in their family, practical problems and help which they need. There are also casuistries of foster care families.

Children who are in foster care or who have been adopted often face uncommon challenges, as do their families and providers. Child and adolescent psychiatrists have a unique role in aiding these children and their adult caretakers. Foster care has long been a source of public policy debate over the role of child welfare agencies in determining when to remove a child, and more recently over the costs of placements and additional services that these children often need. Current controversies concern gay and lesbian foster care, custody relinquishment, multiple placements, and health-care delivery while in foster care. We focus initially on entry into foster care and the implications for the child, particularly the impact on their health and development. Other factors considered include care coordination, or lack of, multiple placements, and grandparent/kinship care. Issues surrounding adoption are explored, including "closed" and "open" adoptions, race, and age. We emphasize recent research on gay and lesbian biological families, and the finding that they are just as capable at raising children as heterosexual parents at adoption. Also highlighted is the choice between custody and care that faces many parents of severely mentally ill children. Finally we look at the special concerns relating to international adoption. Case vignettes are presented to highlight the practical aspects of fostering and adoption.

Virtually nothing is known about the characteristics used to select foster families. This study examined if and how psychosocial problems, income, education, race and the supply of and demand for foster families are related to the approval of families to foster and the placement of children. Families who were approved and who had a child placed had fewer problems and higher incomes than families who were not approved and who did not have a child placed. Income moderated the effect of problems on placement. Race, education, and supply/demand were not related to approval or placement. In many respects results support the efficacy of the selection process.

Providing effective foster care is a major undertaking that continues to plague this country. The ultimate goal of substitute care is to provide child victims of maltreatment with a safe and nurturing home environment. The goal of this theory driven research project was to identify ecological factors correlated with effective non-kin family foster care. Various levels of analysis were considered including individual, family and community. The findings of this study identified three factors as significant predictors of effective foster care. Included are implications for social work in the areas of practice, policy, and research.

Substance use is a serious and growing problem in the U.S. The impact of substance use disorders is vast and can affect more than the person with the disorder. Drug overdose deaths and related hospitalizations are positively associated with a rise in foster care case nationwide. When a child is removed from a home, social workers see first if there are biological family members who could provide a suitable home for the child as to make the transition less disruptive for the child. The average age of a kin caregiver was 59 years old in 2018, so this likely means grandparents are stepping in the caregiver role. Appalachia specifically has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic, and its rates of both overdose deaths and foster care cases have greatly increased. However, no research has analyzed the association between rates of grandparents as primary caregivers of children and county-level drug overdose mortality rates in Appalachia specifically and then compared that to the same association for non-Appalachian areas. Thus, this study decided to examine the association between those variables with a national dataset made from county-level data from multiple sources, mainly the CDC National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau American Communities Survey (ACS). A cross-sectional analysis of 5-year estimates for drug overdose mortality on a county-level associated with the ACS data on grandparents acting as primary caregivers of grandchildren under the age of 18 was performed. There were three hypotheses: 1) counties with higher rates of drug overdose mortality will have higher rates of grandparents acting as primary caregivers of children under 18 years old, 2) the rate of grandparents serving as primary guardians of children under 18 years old will be higher in Appalachian counties than in non-Appalachian counties, 3) the correlation between grandparents serving as primary caregivers of children under 18 years old and drug overdose mortality will be stronger in Appalachian counties as opposed to non. For each hypothesis, a bivariate analysis was run independently, and by using multivariate modeling, the association between grandparents as primary caregivers and overdose mortality was evaluated. Running these analyses determined some statistically significant results: as overdose rates increase, rates of grandparent guardians increase; the rate of grandparent caregivers is higher in Appalachian counties than non-Appalachian counties; and there is a stronger correlation between overdose mortality rate increases and grandparents as caregivers increases in Appalachian counties as opposed to non-Appalachian counties. This is useful as there is a lack of research discussing this specific relationship, especially in rural areas such as in Appalachia. Furthermore, these results could help inform policies and programs to support grandparent guardians and help lessen the impacts of parental substance use for children.

Foster care alumni are a unique subset of college students who enter post-secondary education having faced significant socio-economic challenges and emotional trauma. These students often understand how attending post-secondary education can help create a more stable life. However, the graduation of this population is extremely low. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand formerly fostered youths' perspectives of the needs and stressors students face while attending post-secondary education. Specifically, the researcher wanted to understand what characteristics influence former foster care youth to enroll in college and what characteristics help former foster care youth persist in higher education until graduation. The study utilized both student departure theory and resilience theory to frame each research question conceptually. The results illuminated the resilience of former fostered youth attending post-secondary education and their characteristics for continued enrollment.