“I Was Being Used More as a Babysitter Than a Foster Parent”: Qualitative Findings From Foster Parent Surveys in Two States

Abstract

Foster parent retention is a challenge for child welfare agencies. This article presents findings from open-ended survey responses of foster parents in Mississippi (MS) and Missouri (MO) collected shortly after a foster placement began (MS n = 106; MO n = 62) and after 3 months (MS n = 117; MO n = 83). The research question for this study was: In what ways do foster parents describe their interactions with child welfare workers? Themes identified include conflicts related to the goals and roles of foster parenting, the “broken” foster care system and ways they felt valued (or not) by their caseworkers and agencies. Participants’ responses highlight the need for agencies to understand and strengthen relationship-building between child welfare staff and foster parents, and to create practices and policies that communicate value-of-service to foster parents.

Keywords

foster parent recruitment foster parent retention child welfare system foster care

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