Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-77).

Thesis (Psy.D.)--James Madison University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this project is to explore the extent of interaction between teachers and foster children's social workers in regard to their education.

This study will explore whether the relationships between grandparents and birthparents affect kinship care placement outcomes for court dependent children. Data was extracted from an existing study of kinship care providers.

This research project examined the efficacy of the pilot project of the Adolescent Specialized Unit in the San Bernardino County Department of Children's Services. Among the outcomes explored in this project were the permanent plans for the foster children, the number of times they changed placements in the course of the study, the type of placement they were in, and the number of significant adults they have contact with.

The aim of this study was to understand how a social workers responsible for foster children within the municipal social services, is working with the children’s continuous relationships with family members and other significant related, as well as which knowledge formed the basis for their work practice. The study is based on interviews with eight social workers from three different municipalities. The results showed that the work is based on the law which causing interpretations, in which the individual assessment is in fact to be based on the child's needs- and best, but in practice are decisions made by and involving several parties. The study showed that the guardians and foster cares wills and opinions weigh heavily, often at the expense of the child perspective. As a strategy to assess the child's best, the social workers turn to their own quiet knowledge and colleagues and the organization's traditions to retrieve knowledge that supports the decisions, and to a lesser extent to scientific knowledge and evidence-based practice. The social workers also expressed a wish to work more with scientific underpinnings, but the organization does not work with routine gathering of scientific knowledge.

This research explored the perspective of foster parents on the educational experiences of foster children and experiences of communication patterns with other key stakeholders (social workers, and teachers). Factors focused on were educational experience of foster children, communication patterns, the impact of communication patterns on the educational experience, and barriers to effective communication. Five individuals who were, at the time of the study, foster parents to at least one child were interviewed. Participants openly shared a variety of positive and negative experiences. This study adopted the theoretical framework of Bronfenbrenner’s cultural-ecological theory. Participant interviews were transcribed verbatim and inductive coding was used for analysis of transcriptions. Central themes that emerged included past experiences of foster child impacts the educational experience, the teacher-student relationship impacts the educational experience, and communication patterns impact the consistency of expectations across systems. Results from the study showed that foster parents are generally satisfied with the communication patterns they experience with key stakeholders. Consistency of expectations and modeling of help seeking behavior were identified as the key impacts communication patterns have on the educational experience of foster children. A unique experience of the impact of communication with biological parents of the foster child was also revealed.

This dissertation, Constructing Hope: Narrative and the Foster Care Experience, analyzes the language used to explain the foster care experience to children under the care of Arizona's Child Protective Services (CPS). The dissertation proposes revisions to the language around foster care to make the experience less confusing and makes recommendations to encourage hope for foster children. This multi-methodological study combines ethnography and textography. Engaging narrative inquiry, relying particularly on Earnest Bormann and Walter Fisher, the dissertation analyzes Arizona's training material for Child Protective Services (CPS) case managers (CORE training) and Arizona's training material for foster parents (PS-MAPP training) along with interviews of case managers and foster parents. The analysis of the CORE training for CPS case managers reveals that narratives about CPS generally focus on the birth parent as central to the plot and situate children as supporting characters. Also, the analysis shows narrative disjunctures between the characterization of birth parents in the CORE training and the experiences of the case managers interviewed. I show how the language used in the CORE training could be more coherent with the experiences of case managers and the experiences of children. The analysis of the PS-MAPP training reveals a contradiction between the characterization of the foster caregiver and the metaphor of "parent" used to describe the foster caregiver. Also, the study demonstrates ways in which the strength/needs framework, which is central to the training, could be expanded to better prepare foster caregivers for their work. Finally, examining Aviva Children's Services' Life Book program reveals ways in which hope can be cultivated for foster children. The analysis of the Life Book project proposes a rhetoric of hope applicable to other populations who have undergone serious trauma.

Studies have shown that foster children encounter many problems in everyday life. Three of these major problems are access to information, communication and integration. Studies have also shown that digital services such as mobile application can assist this particular type of user with their needs. However, when designing such a service, it is important that the right user experience design process which is suitable for the user will be implemented. For this reason, the goal of this study is to answer the following questions: “Which UX design guidelines are considered more efficient when designing a digital service, especially eHealth services, aimed for adolescent foster children?” In general, this study aims to identify which factors inside user experience design will lead to a more efficient experience for adolescent foster children from the age of 15 to 18. In order to accomplish this, the user centered design and design science research methodology were adopted for this study. Other methods such as literature study, interviews, usability test and heuristic evaluation test were also conducted. Furthermore, to evaluate the identified design guidelines, a mobile prototype which included the design guidelines were created. Based on the results from the usability test and heuristic evaluation test, it can be argued that the design features that would benefit adolescent foster children in a digital service are social features, accessing the right information at the right time, rewards and challenges. Other design features such positive color palates, clear navigation features and minimum use of instructional text should also be used. More importantly, when it came to understanding the needs of the focus group and the context specifics surrounding them, it was realized that designers should create trust with the user, including experts in the area, identifying ethical issues and the exact limitations that the focus group faces. It should be noted that at the beginning of this study, the main plan was to test the concept on actual foster children. Unfortunately, due to certain circumstances, this was not possible. Instead, a usability test and heuristic evaluation test for the prototype was conducted with participants that were experts in the areas related to this study.

Based on the above findings and the preliminary theoretical framework, resource mobilizing and responsibility boundary is input to construct the support model of foster family. The characteristic of social support in substitute family is concluded. Recommendation about foster care policy and services is also provided. / Based on the review of literatures of foster care and social support, a preliminary theoretical framework is constructed. The important findings include: (l) The support relationship between foster families and foster adolescents is influenced by foster care service center and the natural family information of foster adolescents. Different foster families have different affection boundary and responsibility boundary. The boundary of support is constructed differently. Four types of support relationship is found: Totally Inclusive Supporting, Totally Exclusive Supporting, Semi Exclusive Supporting, and Passive Supporting. (2) In the support relationship between foster families and foster adolescents, foster families mobilize all kinds of family resources and outer resources to provide support to foster adolescents in living care, education, eliminating discrimination, development plan. (3) The support type of foster family is changing continuously. If the affection boundary and the responsibility boundary do not match with each other, the support relationship is not stable, or conflict with each other, and even collapse. / Since the 1990s, in the context of socialization of social welfare in China, the modern family foster care began to develop in China. This study is conducted in Shanghai, China. Qualitative research method is adopted. 16 foster adolescents and their foster families participate in this study. The aims of the study include exploring the support relationship between foster families and foster adolescents, researching the process of foster family's support to foster adolescents, finding the development of the support types, filling in the gaps of foster care study in China, expanding the study of social support in substitute family, advocating the foster care policy and services in China. / 王玥. / Advisers: Ngan-pun Ngai; Sek-yum Ngai. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 376-391). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Wang Yue.