The aim of this study was to understand the contact between foster homes and social workers, by doing a comparison of the social workers and the foster homes experiences of the cooperation that is between them. We started from three main questions to get an answer to our aim, how the foster homes and the social workers experience the organization of the foster care in the Social Service as an impact of the cooperation, what does the foster homes and the social workers experience as a important fact of a successful placement and finally, how does the foster homes and the social workers experience the supporting and controlling contact that is between them. To get our results we based our study on interviews whit four foster homes and whit four social workers. The analysis was based on one theoretical perspective, Skaus (2007) analytical approach for power and help. As a conclusion we have found out, that the organization of the Social Service has significance for the contact between social workers and foster homes. The social workers and the foster homes have different opinions of how the Social Service should be organized, so that the contact should be as good as possible. The social workers saw the ground work as an important fact for the placement to be successful. Both social workers and foster homes saw the confidence between them, as an important fact for the placement to be successful. All four foster homes and two of the social workers saw the controlling part of the contact as a good and necessary thing. The other two of the social workers saw the controlling part as a complicated assignment.  The social workers saw the controlling part as an inadequate thing in the foster care today. Both foster homes and social workers experience that the supporting contact between them are working well.

Sammanfattning Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur familjehemsföräldrar upplever att deras anknytning samt föräldraroll påverkas utifrån att barnen är familjehemsplacerade. Metoden som användes i studien var kvalitativ och elva familjehemsföräldrar från åtta familjehem intervjuades. Studiens empiri analyserades med hjälp av anknytningsteori samt systemteori. Resultatet visade att samtliga intervjuade familjehem i någon mån påverkades av komplexiteten i familjehemsuppdraget, vilket påverkade deras föräldraroll och anknytning till de placerade barnen. Studiens slutsatser gällande anknytningen och föräldrarollen är att det finns flera faktorer som påverkar dessa. Gällande familjehemsföräldrarnas anknytning till det placerade barnet påverkar faktorer såsom hur länge barnets anknytningssystem är påslaget, hur familjehemsföräldern närmar sig barnet, barnets ålder, barnets personliga egenskaper och familjehemsuppdragets utformning. Faktorer som påverkar familjehemsföräldrarollen visar sig vara barnets personliga faktorer, den bristande bestämmanderätten, komplexiteten i uppdraget, de gränser familjehemsföräldern och barnet sätter upp i relationen dem emellan samt på vilket sätt familjehemsföräldern ser på uppdraget. / Abstract The aim of this study was to examine how foster parents experience that their parental role and attachment to the foster child is affected by the fact that the child is placed in a foster home. In this study a qualitative method was used and eleven foster parents from eight foster homes were interviewed. To analyze the results of the study, attachment theory and general systems theory were used. The results showed that all of the interviewed foster families to some degree were affected by the complexity of the foster home commitment, which affected their parental role and attachment to the foster child. The conclusions of the study are that there are several factors that affect the attachment and the parental role. Factors that affect foster parents attachment to the foster child is for how long the child’s attachment system is activated, how the foster parent approach the foster child, the foster child’s age, the foster child’s personal qualities and the shape of the foster home commitment. Factors that affect the foster parent’s parental role were the child’s personal qualities, the lack of authority to make decisions, the complexity of the commitment, the boundaries the foster parent and the child set up in the relationship between them and how the foster parents view their foster home commitment.

A survey was made of the graduates of an educationally -oriented church-sponsored foster home placement agency . The subjects for the study had been graduated from high schools in Idaho, Arizona, Canada, and throughout Utah. There were 235 students graduated during the period 1954-1967 . The survey of these subjects was made by the use of the mailed questionnaire method. Responses were received from 165 (70 . 21 percent) of the subjects. The investigator was searching for modal patterns of behavior among the graduates. Some significant trends seem to be emerging in their post-high school activities. Implications for future studies of the culturally disadvantaged are evident as a result of the study. The subjects of this study appear to be preparing themselves to become more self-reliant in their own culture and functional in the dominant culture. The accomplishments of the respondents compare favorably with those of their contemporaries of the non-Indian population.