This paper aims to describe the social workers relationship / contact to the foster parents' own children in a foster home. The aim is also to understand a social workers perspective on foster parents' own children in the foster home. We wanted to find out how social workers relationship/contact to the foster parents own children looks like, which has shown to differ between municipality to municipality. The study has shown that the perspective on the own children in the family, differs from municipality to municipality and that the own children’s meaning for the foster home as a social contribution, has a varied meaning amongst social workers. Based on several theories and concepts we have analyzed our result we got from the interviews, we found out that social workers looks at and works differently with foster parents own children. We found out that social workers perspective on foster parent’s own children is, that they are a very important resource and they participate in the fostering of the foster child. It also became clear in our result that a paradox appears in social workers work when although they don’t have any regulated documents on how to work with the foster parent’s own children, they still experience that they are restricted in their work by the organization they work under.

The aim of this study has been to create an understanding for the situation of an often forgotten group in foster care, the carers’ own children. Our main focus has been the experience this group has of foster care, their experience of participation in caring for the foster children and their possible need of support and help. Our chosen method has been qualitative interviews with six adult children of foster carers, two men and four women. The theory used in this study has been Sense of Coherence. Our interviewees gave mainly a positive description of being part of a foster family even though they could give examples of difficult situation and of loss. All of them gave different examples of how they had participated in the care of foster children, such as babysitting, defending foster siblings in school and supporting them. Despite their over all positive memories most of them wished they had been offered better support, preferably counseling with advice on how to act in difficult situations. A main focus for the interviewees seemed to be the need for better information as well as education about why the foster children act as they do.

The aim of this study was to provide an understanding of the situation of an often forgotten group in foster care, the carers’ own children. Our main focus was to explore this group’s experience of foster care, their experience of participating in caring for the foster children and their possible need of support and help. Our chosen method was qualitative interviews with six adult children of foster carers, two men and four women. The theory used in this study was Sense of Coherence. Our interviewees mainly gave a positive description of being part of a foster family, however they also gave examples of difficult situations and of loss. All of them gave different examples of how they had participated in the care of foster children, such as babysitting, defending foster siblings in school and supporting them. Despite their overall positive memories most of them wished they had been offered better support, preferably counseling with advice on how to act in difficult situations. The need for better information, as well as education about why the foster children act as they do, seemed important to the interviewees.

Familjehemsvård är den vanligaste placeringsformen i Sverige för barn som inte kan bo med sin familj. När sammanbrott sker berörs de närmast involverade. Syftet var att genom en allmän litteraturöversikt undersöka familjehemsföräldrars perspektiv på sammanbrott i familjehemsvård. 10 vetenskapliga artiklar låg till grund för resultatet som analyserades med hjälp av sorg- och kristeori samt salutogenetiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visade att sammanbrott väcker olika känslor som sorg, förlust, lättnad och ångest. Familjehemsföräldrar kände sig misslyckade och upplevde sig ha svikit barnet. Dessa känslor kunde även leda till en identitetskris hos familjehemsföräldrarna. Vidare uppmärksammades att relationen till, och kommunikationen med, socialtjänsten påverkade upplevelsen av sammanbrott. Brister i samverkan med socialtjänsten kunde negativt påverka stödet till familjehemsföräldrarna. / In Sweden, family foster care is the most common form of placement for children who cannot live with their families. Disruptions in placements can occur and affect those most immediately involved. The purpose of this literature review was to explore foster parents’ perspectives on placement breakdown. The result was based on 10 scientific articles that were analyzed through bereavement theory and salutogenic perspective. Results show that placement disruption awakens emotions such as sorrow, loss, relief and anxiety. Foster parents’ experienced failure and felt that they had betrayed the child. These feelings could also lead to an identity crisis for the foster parents. Further observations indicated that the relationship to, and communication with, social services affected foster parents’ perceptions of disruption. The shortcomings in collaboration with social services could influence the support offered to foster parents in a negative way.

De flesta barn som blir placerade utanför det egna hemmet lever i familjehem, varav många familjehemsföräldrar även har egna biologiska barn. Dessa barn osynliggörs av socialtjänsten, trots den vikt de tillskrivs i fostringsprocessen av ett placerat barn. Syftet med vår studie är att undersöka hur tidigare forskning har uppmärksammat familjehemsföräldrars biologiska barns uppväxt och på vilket sätt. Utifrån en systematisk, integrativ litteraturstudie har 15 artiklar valts ut och redogörs för i tematisk struktur varpå en analys har genomförts med hjälp av barndomssociologin som teoretisk ansats. Resultatet konstaterar att familjehemsföräldrars biologiska barn har en viktig roll i familjehemmet och är i många fall aktiva i behandlandet av det placerade barnet. Socialtjänsten bör förbereda familjehemsföräldrar och deras biologiska barn för de utmaningar, känslor och tankar biologiska barn kan erhålla när de agerar familjehem. / Most children that are placed in care are living in foster homes where many of the foster parents also have their own biological children. These biological children are found invisible by social services. The purpose of our study was to investigate how and to what extent previous research has drawn attention to foster carers own children. Based on a systematic, integrative literature study, 15 articles have been selected. We have analyzed these articles within the theoretical frame of childhood sociology. The results, states that the biological children have an important role in the foster care process and in the treatment process of the child being placed. The social services should prepare both parents and their children in the foster family for the challenges, feelings and thoughts that the biological children may possibly experience in the foster home care.