Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: Obwohl die Partnerschaftszufriedenheit zum Erfolg bzw. Misserfolg einer Behandlung erheblich beitragen kann, gibt es im deutschsprachigen Raum kein ökonomisches, reliables und valides Instrument. Fragestellung: Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es daher eine Kurzform des Partnerschaftsfragebogen (PFB-K) zu entwickeln. Methode: Der PFB-K wurde anhand einer aktuellen Befragung aus dem Jahr 2011 (N = 1.390) evaluiert und normiert. Ergebnisse: Für den Gesamtwert des PFB-K wurden gute interne Konsistenzen (Gesamt: α = .84; Frauen: α = .87; Männer: α = .81) ermittelt. Eine Normierung erfolgte nach Geschlecht und Alter (19–39, 40–59 und 60–89 Jahre) getrennt. Schlussfolgerungen: Die Kurzform kann in der Praxis und Forschung eingesetzt werden. Eine Kreuzvalidierung anhand einer klinischen Stichprobe steht aus.

BackgroundThis study focuses on children living in foster families with a history of maltreatment or neglect. These children often show adverse mental health outcomes reflected in increased externalizing and internalizing problems. It is expected that these adverse outcomes are associated with increased parental stress levels experienced by foster mothers as well as foster fathers.MethodsThe study sample included 79 children living in foster families and 140 children living in biological families as comparison group. The age of the children ranged from 2 to 7 years. Mental health problems were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist, while parenting stress was measured with a parenting stress questionnaire including subscales on the amount of experienced stress and the amount of perceived support. The Child Behavior Checklist assessments were based mainly on maternal reports, while the parental stress assessments were based on maternal as well as paternal reports.ResultsAs expected the results showed increased externalizing and internalizing scores for the foster children accompanied by increased parental stress experiences in the foster family sample (however only in the maternal, but not in the paternal stress reports). The stress differences between the foster and biological family groups disappeared, when the children’s mental health problem scores were included as covariates. Moreover, especially the externalizing scores were strong predictors of parental stress in both, the groups of foster and biological parents. The amount of perceived social support was associated with reduced parental stress, but only in the group of biological fathers.ConclusionThe emergence of parental stress in biological as well as foster parents is closely related to child characteristics (mainly externalizing child problems). Possible implications for the reduction of parental stress are discussed as a consequence of the present results.

Abstract. This paper focuses on the longitudinal relationships between foster children’s mental health problems and parental stress across a 1-year interval with three measurements. A sample of 94 foster children and a comparison group of 157 biological children and their families participated in this study. The age of the children was between 2 and 7 years. At the initial assessment, the foster children had been in their foster families since 2–24 months. Based on Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, the results indicated increased internalizing and externalizing mental health problems in the foster children group. Both mental health scores remained rather stable across the longitudinal assessments in foster as well as in biological children. Internalizing as well as externalizing scores were substantially correlated with parental stress in both samples. Moreover, changes in mental health scores were associated with changes in parental stress. However, cross-lagged panel analyses showed no clear pattern of temporal relationships between children’s mental health scores and parental stress. Implications as well as strengths and limitations of the current study are addressed in the Discussion section.

Young children with a history of maltreatment or neglect in foster families often confront their caregivers with particularly challenging behaviors. This may lead to more parenting stress, an increased risk for the child in foster care to experience further maltreatment, and placement disruptions. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of a parent group training tailored to the special needs of foster families. We hypothesized significant short- and long-term improvements regarding foster parents’ parenting competencies, child mental health problems, and related outcomes. Eighty-one families with 87 children in foster care aged 2 to 7 years participated in the trial. For the intervention study, 44 randomly selected families (54%) were offered to participate in the parent group training. Intervention and control group families were reassessed three times over a period of 1 year. Contrary to our expectations, we found no advantages of the intervention group compared with the usual care control group on any outcome measure. Instead, we found some significant changes in both groups across time. Placement into foster care is associated with some favorable outcomes for children in foster care. Additional support for foster families beyond the services delivered in the youth welfare system to foster parents was not associated with more favorable outcomes. The present intervention is likely associated with a low risk of harm but also with a high likelihood of a lack of significant benefits for foster parents and their young children going beyond feeling satisfied about the delivered services. Participating foster families showed favorable baseline results on parenting measures which may have impeded intervention effects to unfold on these proximal variables.

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