Family care providers for the developmentally disabled, like all role incumbents, must function with some degree of role performance ambiguity, and reconcile different expectations from role partners. Interviews were conducted with 20 caretakers and involved 51 open-ended questions. The discussion of the day-to-day management of this role focused on three inherent difficulties and mechanisms used by incumbents to cope with them: (1) a need to negotiate the altered relationship with the community at large that results from the voluntary assumption of the care of a stigmatized person; (2) the role strains resulting from the adoption of a natural parent analogy, the selection of which is almost inevitable, given the situation of foster care applicants; and (3) the necessity to manage the incompatibility of subordinating parent discretion to agency supervision, by means of redefining relations with the agency in the person of the case manager. The directions in which this conceptualization of the role of the family care provider might take this service are discussed, particularly in the light of other human service occupational ideologies.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ambinder, W. , et al.1962“Role phenomena and foster care for disturbed children.”Amer. J. of Orthopsychiatry32: 32-39.
2.
Birenbaum, A.1978“On managing a courtesy stigma.”J. of Health and Social Behavior11: 196-206.
3.
Birenbaum, A. and M. B. Ahmed1970“Recruitment, training and utilization of community mental health workers.”Soc. Symposium23: 122-134.
4.
Birenbaum, A. and M. A. Re 1980 “Finding and keeping family care providers,” pp. 104-120 in Herbert Cohen and David Kligler (eds.) Urban Community Care for the Developmentally Disabled. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
5.
Child Welfare League of America 1962 Quantitative Approaches to Parent Selection. New York: Child Welfare League of America.
6.
Cole, L. C.1952“The triangle in child placement: parent, child and foster parents.”Social Service Rev.25: 169-180.
7.
Corwin, R. G.1961“Role conceptions and career aspirations: a study of identity in nursing.”Soc. Q.2: 69-86.
8.
Coser, R. L.1966“Role distance, sociological ambivalence and transitional status systems.”Amer. J. of Sociology72: 173-187.
9.
Davids, L. 1968 “The foster father role.” Ph.D. dissertation, New York University.
10.
Douglas, J. D. (ed.) 1970 Deviance and Respectability: The Social Construction of Moral Meanings. New York: Basic Books.
11.
Fanshel, D. 1966 Foster Parenthood: A Role Analysis. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
12.
Fanshel, D. and E. B. Shinn 1978 Children in Foster Care: A Longitudinal Investigation. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
13.
Fellner, I. W. and C. Solomon1973“Achieving permanent solutions for children in foster home care.”Child Welfare52: 178-187.
14.
Galaway, B.1972“Clarifying the role of foster parents.”Children Today1: 32-33.
15.
Garrett, B.1970“Foster family services for mentally retarded children.”Children17: 228-233.
16.
Geiser, R. 1973 The Illusion of Caring: Children in Foster Care. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
17.
Goffman, E. 1959 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday. 1963 Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
18.
Gold, R. L. 1964 “In the basement—the apartment-building janitor,” pp. 1-49 in P. L. Berger (ed.) The Human Shape of Work. New York: Crowell, Collier & MacMillan.
19.
Gottesfeld, H. 1970 In Loco Parentis: A Study of the Perceived Role Values in Foster Home Care. New York: Jewish Child Care Association of America.
20.
Haitch, R. 1968 Orphans of the Living: The Foster Care Crisis. New York: Public Affairs Commission.
21.
Huntington, M. J. 1957 “The development of a professional self-image,” pp. 179-187 in R. K. Merton, G. C. Reader and P. L. Kendall (eds.) The Student-Physician. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.
22.
Jacobs, D. 1980 “Foster care: myths and reality,” pp. 89-103 in H. Cohen and D. Kligler (eds.) Urban Community Care for the Developmentally Disabled. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
23.
Jenkins, S. and E. Norman 1972 Filial Deprivation and Foster Care. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
24.
Kadushin, A. 1971 “Child welfare: adoption and foster care,” pp. 103-111 in Encyclopedia of Social Work, Vol. 1. New York: National Association of Social Workers.
25.
Kadushin, C.1969“The professional self-concept of music students.”Amer. J. of Sociology75: 389-404.
26.
McCoy, J.1962a“The application of the role concept of foster parenthood.”Social Casework43: 252-256. 1962b“The motives and conflicts in foster parenthood.”Children9: 222-226.
27.
Merton, R. K. 1968 “Continuities in the theory of reference groups and social structure,” pp. 335-440 in Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press.
28.
Ougheltree, C. 1957 Finding Foster Homes. New York: Child Welfare League of America.
29.
Pavalko, R. M. 1971 “Occupational ideologies,” pp. 192-195 in Sociology of Occupations and Professions. Itasca, IL: Peacock Publishers.
30.
Reistroffer, M.1968“A university extension course for foster parents.”Children15: 28-31.
31.
Sagarin, E. 1975 Deviants and Deviance: An Introduction to the Study of Disvalued People and Behavior. New York: Praeger.
32.
Sarbin, T. R. and V. L. Allen 1968 “Role theory,” pp. 488-567 in G. Lindzey and E. Aronson (eds.) The Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 1. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Harvard Univ. Press.
33.
Shapiro, D. 1976 Agencies and Foster Children. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
34.
Simpson, I. H. 1979 From Student to Nurse: A Longitudinal Study of Socialization. Cambridge.
35.
Simpson, R. L. and I. H. Simpson1959“The psychiatric attendant: development of an occupational self-image in a low-status occupation.”Amer. Soc. Rev.24: 389-392.
36.
Stein, T., E. Gambrill , and K. Wiltse 1978 Children in Foster Homes: Achieving Continuity of Care. New York: Praeger.
37.
Swindall, B. E.1961“The function and role of the natural parent in the foster family constellation” . Child Welfare40: 6-11.
38.
Treudley, M. B.1944“The concept of role in social work.”Amer. Soc. Rev.9: 665-670.
39.
Vick, J.1967“Recruiting and retaining foster homes.”Public Welfare25: 229-234.
40.
Wardwall, W. I.1955“The reduction of strain in a marginal social role.”Amer. J. of Sociology61: 16-25.
41.
Weinstein, E. 1960 The Self-Image of the Foster Child. New York: Russell Sage.
42.
Wilkes, J. R.1974“The impact of fostering on the foster family.”Child Welfare53: 373-379.
43.
Williston, G. C.1963“The foster-parent role.”J. of Social Psychology60: 263-272.
44.
Wolins, M. 1963 Selecting Foster Parents: The Ideal and the Reality. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
