Thesis (LLD) -- University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Mode of acess: World Wide Web.

The diploma thesis deals with contacts of a child in foster care with a child's biological family. The aim of this work was to map the experiences of children in foster care with contacts with biological family. The diploma thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part is focused on approaching the system of surrogate family care, further explains the differences between partial forms of surrogate family care. Attention is paid to the experiencing of children, child's identity and also to the subject of attachment. The work deals in detail with the biological family of a child in foster care and their subsequent contacts as one of the main topics. The practical part follows the qualitative processing of narrative interviews, where the effort is to describe how children in long-term foster care experience contact with a biological family. The work is focused on the experience of a child in foster care with contacts with a biological family from the perspective of nine young people growing up in a foster family who formed the research set. The method of simple intentional selection and the snowball method were used to select the participants. The obtained data were evaluated using the cluster method. The research showed 7 clusters common in the participants' statements. These are the following clusters: the child's contact with the biological family; obtaining information about the biological family; feelings connected with contact; child's attitude to the biological parent (relatives); foster parents' reaction to the contact; child-foster relationship; current view of the contact. Each participant looks at the course of contacts with the biological family individually, but the results of the research have shown that there are situations that informants and informatics have in common. For example, the desire to get to know their biological parents, although individuals need time to process the obtained information about the biological family before contacting the biological family. The thesis will help to raise awareness about foster care and may be useful for future foster parents.