Foster parents face many stresses in their family life, whether they provide kinship care, general foster care, specialized foster care, or treatment family care. Critical issues include maintaining open boundaries while sustaining cohesion and integrity of the core family structure. Pressures from the agency, the community, the foster child, and his or her parents affect the way in which this family style functions. Focusing on the work done by family-centered practitioners with foster parents facing various types of developmental and situational crises, the author examines the responses of foster families to the multiple and chronic experiences of loss that they face. Guidelines for practitioners include placement issues, therapeutic issues, and knowledge of systems that clinicians need to work effectively with foster-parent families. Case materials illustrate the crises of dismemberment and demoralization as well as the crisis of accession.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BerrickJ., & BarthR. (1994). Research of kinship foster care: What do we know? Where do we go from here?Children and Youth Services Review, 16(1-2), 1–5.
2.
BowlbyJ. (1973). Separation, anxiety and anger.New York: Basic Books.
3.
BoydL., & RemyL. (1978). Is foster parent training worthwhile?Social Service Review, 52, 275–296.
4.
BurkeM., & DawsonT. (1987). Temporary care foster parents: Motives and issues of separation and loss. Child and Adolescent Social Work, 4(3-4), 30–38.
5.
CarbinoR. (1991). Child abuse and neglect reports in foster care: The issue of foster families and “false” allegations. Child and Youth Services, 15, 233–247.
6.
CautleyP. (1980). New foster parents: The first experience.New York: Human Services Press.
7.
Child Welfare League of America. (1994). Kinship care: A natural bridge.Washington DC: Author.
8.
DennisK. (1992). STAR, specialized team for AIDS relief: A therapeutic foster car program for children with AIDS. Community Alternatives, 4, 269–280.
9.
DillonD. (1994). Understanding and assessment of intragroup dynamics in family foster care: African American families. Child Welfare, 73, 129–139.
10.
DownsS., CostinL., & McFaddenE. J. (1996). Child welfare and family services: Policies and practice (5th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.
11.
DubowitzH., FeigelmanS., & ZuravinS. (1993). A profile of kinship care. Child Welfare, 72, 153–169.
12.
GebelT. (1996). Kinship care and non-relative family foster care: A comparison of caregiver attributes and attitudes. Child Welfare, 75, 5–18.
13.
HillR. (1958). Generic features of families under stress. Social Casework, 39, 139–150.
14.
HudsonJ., NutterR., & GalawayB. (1994). Treatment foster family care: Development and current status. Community Alternatives, 6(2), 1–24.
15.
JenkinsS., & NormanE. (1972). Filial deprivation and foster care.New York: Columbia University Press.
16.
JewettC. (1978). Adopting the older child.Cambridge, MA: Harvard Common Press.
17.
KatzL. (1987). An overview of current clinical issues in separation and placement. Child and Adolescent Social Work, 4(3-4), 61–77.
18.
KulpJ. (1993). Families at risk: A guide to understanding and protecting children and care providers involved in out-of-home or adoptive care.Minneapolis, MN: New Beginnings Press.
19.
LeeD., & OlenderM. (1992). Working with juvenile sex offenders in foster care. Community Alternatives, 4(2), 63–75.
20.
LittnerN. (1972). Some traumatic effects of separation and placement.New York: Child Welfare League of America.
21.
MaloneyD., FixenD., & PhillipsE. (1981). The teaching-family model: Research and dissemination in service program. Children and Youth Services Review, 5, 343–355.
22.
McFaddenE. J. (1989). The sexually abused child in specialized foster care. In HudsonJ., & GalawayB. (Eds.), Specialist foster family care: A normalizing experience (pp. 91–103). New York: Haworth.
23.
McFaddenE. J., & DownsS. (1995). Family continuity. The new paradigm in permanency planning. Community Alternatives, 7, 44–57.
24.
McFaddenE., RiceD., RyanP., & WarrenB. (1989). Leaving home again: Emancipation from foster family care. In HudsonJ., & GalawayB. (Eds.), Specialist foster family care: A normalizing experience (pp. 133–174). New York: Haworth.
25.
MolinR. (1994). Foster families and larger systems: Image and identity. Community Alternatives, 6, 19–31.
26.
MyersM. (1992). Extending the concept: Foster family care with special applications. Community Alternatives, 4, 185–199.
27.
PasztorE., & BurgessE. (1982). Finding and keeping more foster parents. Children Today, 36, 2–5.
28.
PecoraP., WhittakerJ., MaluccioA., BarthR., & PlotnickR. (1992). The child welfare challenge.New York: Walter de Gruyter.
29.
PinderhughesE. (1991). The delivery of child welfare services to African American clients. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61, 599–605.
30.
RubensteinJ., ArmentroutJ., LevinS., & HeraldD. (1978). The parent therapist program: Alternative care for emotionally disturbed children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 48, 654–662.
31.
RyanP. (1987, Summer). Recruitment and retention of foster parents. Fostering Ideas, 1–8.
32.
RyanP., McFaddenE. J., & WarrenB. (1981). Foster families: A resource for helping parents. In MaluccioA., & SinanogluP. (Eds.), The challenge of partnership (pp. 389–199). New York: Child Welfare League of America.
33.
SchatzM. S., & HoresjiC. (1996). The importance of religious tolerance: Educating foster parents. Child Welfare, 75, 73–86.
34.
StackC. (1974). All our kin: Strategies for survival in a black community.New York: Harper & Row.
35.
StehnoS. (1990). The elusive continuum of child welfare service: Implications for minority children and youth. Child Welfare, 69, 551–562.
36.
StoneH. (1987). Ready, set, go: An agency guide to independent living.Washington DC: Child Welfare League of America.
37.
StrombergA. (1994). Foster parents of children with special medical care needs: Their characteristics and reasons for involvement. Community Alternatives, 6, 57–73.
38.
TakasM. (1993). Kinship care and family preservation: A guide for states in legal and policy development.Washington DC: American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law.
39.
TataraT. (1992). Characteristics of children in substitute and adoptive care: A statistical summary of the VCIS National Child Welfare Data Base.Washington, DC: American Public Welfare Association.
40.
TitteringtonL. (1990). Foster care training: A comprehensive approach. Child Welfare, 69, 157–165.
41.
TwiggR. (1995). Coping with loss. How foster parents' children cope with foster care. Community Alternatives, 7, 1–11.
42.
U.S. General Accounting Office. (1989). Foster parents: Recruiting and preservice training practice and evaluation.Washington, DC: Author.
43.
WatsonK. (1982). A bold new model for foster family care. Public Welfare, 40, 14–21.
44.
YostD., & HochstadtN. (1992). Foster care for medically complex children. An emerging alternative. Community Alternatives, 4, 253–258.
