The purpose of this study is to examine what meaning foster parents give to their relationship with their foster children. The aim of the study is to answer the following questions: How do the foster parents describe their relationships with the foster children? What approach do the foster parents have to the fact that the foster placement is not meant to be permanent? What meaning does it have for the relationship between the foster parents and the foster children that the placement is not meant to be permanent?   The result of this study is based on eight qualitative, semi-structured, interviews that were held with people who are, or have been, foster parents. As a theoretical framework action theory was used. The result show that some foster parents view the foster children as their own, whilst others don’t. The foster parents thought that a good relationship to the foster child is essential for the child's present and future well-being. Further, some foster parents suggest that the fact that the placement were not meant to be permanent created a distance between them and the foster children whilst others claimed that it didn’t have any effect on the relationship. All foster parents said that they tried not to think about the fact that the child might move back with its biological parents.

M.A. (Social Work) / This study serves to provide social workers in foster care practice in South Africa with a social technology innovation that is: Contextually appropriate Grounded in theory and User friendly. Social workers in South Africa do not have access to a set of standardised assessment criteria with which to assess prospective foster parents, and yet there are over half a million children in the foster care system in South Africa. Consequently, the research goal of this study is to design and develop a contextually appropriate protocol in social work for the assessment of prospective foster parents in South Africa. In order to achieve this, a number of objectives are linked to this goal: 1. To conduct a literature study for the identification of the dimensions (assessment) areas of the protocol. 2. To design a theoretically grounded model of the competencies of effective foster parents in South Africa. 3. To develop a professional social work protocol with which to assess the competencies of prospective foster parents. 4. To conduct focus groups and Delphi cycles to improve the face validity and content validity of the protocol. Developmental research methodologies were used to design the protocol. In the process of using the DR&U model (Thomas, 1984), a further outcome of the study is the development of a research method for the development of a contextually appropriate protocol in social work. The study comprises two stages: Stage 1 entails the design of a model of the competencies of effective foster families (determining “what” constitutes a good foster parent and developing a model of the ideal foster parents). The dimensions or assessment areas of the protocol are identified by means of a detailed literature study. Data obtained from the literature study is integrated with the outcomes of two Nominal Group Techniques and a Delphi Technique. This is to ensure user participation and to contextualise the model and protocol. Stage 2 entails the design and development (to a limited degree) of an assessment protocol with which to assess prospective foster families (specifying “how” one determines if foster parents meet the criteria of the ideal foster parents in the model designed in Stage 1). The conceptual framework of a model of the assessment of prospective parents is refined through a workshop and Delphi Technique with foster parents and social workers. This is to ensure a measure face validity and the adequacy of the protocol. This study concludes with an evaluation of the outcomes of the study, as well as the research method used to develop the model and the protocol. The model and the protocol are attached to this study.

PRIDE preservice training is a widely-used method of resource parent preparation, yet a program that has been the focus of very little research. This thesis project was carried out in two studies designed to examine the process of training, investigate selected outcomes of the training, and explore the transfer of training into practice. The first study involved 174 prospective resource parents. Investigation of the process of preservice training determined that participant engagement and participant-perceived fidelity, the combination of which was conceptualized as participant-perceived training quality, were high. In terms of outcomes, significant large gains from pre- to posttraining were observed in knowledge of the PRIDE competencies taught by the training. However, no differences were found in resource parent attitudes (erroneous beliefs or motivation to adopt) from pre- to posttraining. Higher training quality was a significant predictor of both greater knowledge gains and higher participant satisfaction. No differences between prospective foster parents and adoptive parents emerged in terms of participant dropout, knowledge gain, participant satisfaction, or attitudes about resource parenting. The second study was a follow-up with 11 foster, adoptive, and kinship parents from study one who had begun parenting a child in care. Interviews with these resource parents focused on the transfer of training of the PRIDE competencies and requested feedback about the training. Participants’ ratings of their transfer of training were high, while the researchers’ ratings fell in the mid-range. Overall, participants’ comments about PRIDE were positive. Participants highlighted how useful they found personal accounts of resource parents’ experiences during training and that child welfare workers played a key role in the implementation of training. The methodological contributions of this project include the development of three measures – a knowledge of PRIDE competencies questionnaire, a measure of participant-perceived quality, and a transfer of training rating scale – that can be used both in future research and in practice. In addition, this project supplied the first evidence of meaningful links between the process, outcomes, and transfer of PRIDE training, all of which were positive. The project provided essential foundational research which future studies of PRIDE should take into account.

The purpose of this study is to determine what factors contribute to a foster family's ability and desire to remain active in fostering after two years. The sample of this research was selected from Bienvenidos Foster Family Agency, a private non-profit social service organization in the Los Angeles County.

Every year, thousands of children end in foster care. It is estimated that approximately 24,000 foster youths age-out of the system each year. The improvement of outcomes of foster youths when they age-out of the system has been a concern among government agencies, policy makers, and advocates. Although research in the foster care area has studied the outcomes of foster youths when they age-out of the system, the role of the foster parents in improving these outcomes, especially in the area of career development, has not received the same attention. The purpose of this study was to explore the perception of foster parents of youths with and without disabilities about their foster youth's career self-efficacy beliefs. A total of 157 foster parents registered in the Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parents Association (IFAPA) and Nebraska Foster and Adoptive Parent Association (NFAPA) email databases responded to an online survey. The survey included a demographic questionnaire which presented questions about the extent of their role as foster parents and the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale - Short Form (CDMSE-SF) that measured the foster parents' perception of the career self-efficacy of their foster youth. After conducting a MANOVA and ANOVA analyses, a highly perceived self-efficacy belief was found among the foster parents in general. However, when the group of foster parents who reported having a youth with disability and those who do not have a youth with disability were compared, the perceived career self-efficacy beliefs were higher among the foster parents of youths without disabilities. Additionally, the foster parents identified services and/or training they understand are important for them and the foster youth such as more orientation about disabilities, the parent's role in Individual Educational Plan (IPE) meetings, and the opportunity for the foster youth of having employment experience before they leave the foster care system. Considering the important role of the family in the career development of youths and the development of expectations, these findings are important not only to the rehabilitation counseling professionals, but to many individuals in the helping professions, educators, researchers, and policy makers.

No description available.

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.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Social Work degree Social Development the department of Social Work School of Human and Community Development Faculty of Humanities at the University of Witwatersrand 2017 / The phenomenon of absent fathers is not uniquely a South African problem but it is a global issue affecting numerous countries such as Norway, the United States of America as well as other African countries such as Nigeria, Swaziland Botswana to mention a few. Levels of paternal absence in South Africa seem particularly high in comparison to estimates for many other African countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The absence of fathers in their children’s lives leave children vulnerable after their biological mothers pass on and are subsequently placed in foster care as a measure of protecting and securing the child. The primary aim of this study was to explore the experiences of foster parents raising African foster care children with absent fathers in the Mpumalanga Province in Gert Sibande region, Msukaligwa sub-district. This study used a qualitative approach with an exploratory design. The research instrument that was used was an interview schedule and the data collection method that was employed was face-to-face semi structured interview. Data were analysed through thematic content analysis. The participants in the study comprised of 20 foster care parents aged from 25 years old and above. The main findings of this study were that foster parents seemed to perceive fathers as economic providers and most of them expressed that their absence seemed to be felt especially when it comes to the lack of financial provision. In addition to financial hardships, emotional and cultural hardships were also identified. The study recommends that more studies of this nature need to be done in order to come up with intervention strategies that governments need to use in order to release some of the strains faced by foster parents who are raising African children in foster care. The conclusion of the study is that South African families require attention, considering that father absence has taken a toll. The ripple effect of father’s failure to be present in their children’s lives and support their children will increase the number of children depending on state interventions such as foster care placements. / MT 2018

No description available.

The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80-20 rule or the Vital Few, has been successfully used as a framework to identify the small proportion of highly productive foster parents who provide a disproportionate amount of care. This study replicated and extended this research using a nationally representative sample of foster families ( N=. 876) with a focus on willingness to foster, and actually fostering, children with special needs. Using latent class analysis, two classes of foster parents were identified: one accounted for 19% of respondents and the other 81%. We refer to the former as the Vital Few and the latter as the Useful Many. Vital Few respondents fostered 74.2% of foster children - 11 times more than the Useful Many, although only fostering two times longer. They also had almost 1-1/2 times as many foster children in their homes at the time of the study. Notably, the Vital Few were willing to foster more types of children with special needs and a higher percentage had actually fostered children with each of the seven types of special needs studied. The classes were similar demographically except that Vital Few respondents were less likely to work outside the home and Vital Few mothers were slightly less educated as compared to Useful Many mothers. This study further validates the utility of the Pareto Principle for understanding foster parents and, by extension, has important implications for the well-being and stability of foster children with special needs. Considerations for supporting the Vital Few, including education and training needs, are discussed.