Professional foster carer and committed parent: role conflict and role enrichment at the interface between work and family in long‐term foster care

Abstract

In the literature on work–family balance, role and boundary issues are commonly discussed in relation to parents who work outside of the home. Work and family are considered as two different spheres of activity, with different role identities and cultural meanings. For foster carers, however, in very significant ways, their family is their work and their work is their family – so roles are not so clearly separated and boundaries are not so clearly defined. This paper reviews theoretical approaches to the work–family interface and draws on qualitative data from 40 interviews with long‐term foster carers. It provides an analysis of their accounts of their roles as professional carers and/or committed parents to explore how they manage different and potentially contradictory role identities. The study found that foster carers primarily identified as carers or as parents, but that some foster carers could move flexibly between these roles while others could not. For foster carers who could be flexible, the two roles enriched each other rather than causing stress and role conflict. Implications for supporting professional foster carers who can also meet the parenting needs of long‐term foster children are discussed.

Balancing between caregiving and professionalism—Women's narratives on fostering a victim of maternal sexual abuse

“…The narratives reflect how the four participating women, each in their own way, sought a balance between being a professional carer and an affectionate (foster) mother, while being sensitive to their foster child's needs and history. Similar to the findings of several earlier studies (e.g., Blythe, Halcomb, Wilkes, & Jackson, 2012;Broady, Stoyles, McMullan, Caputi, & Crittenden, 2010;Kirton, 2007;Schofield, Beek, Ward, & Biggart, 2013;Wozniak, 2002), our results indicate that the professional and the parental dimension of fostering are interrelated.…”

“…In general, our results indicate that, similar to what Newstone (, p. 43) suggests of fostering men, we need to realize that fostering women “model different facets of their sex at different times,” especially when fostering a victim of maternal sexual abuse. Still, in accordance with some of the results of Schofield et al (), the four women did not seemed to experience a conflict between the “carer” or “parent” role. Although they deem fostering to be work, they seem to primarily identify as parents, not as carers.…”

Literature review: Foster carer attraction, recruitment, support and retention

“…This multifaceted support needs to respond to the interaction of individual factors, including informal supports available, and factors related to fostering. It must be noted that carers do report immense satisfaction and joys in caring for children, in addition to the strains and stressful events experienced (Schofield, Beek, Ward, & Biggart, 2013;Sinclair et al, 2004;Wilson, Sinclair, & Gibbs, 2000).…”

“…The stresses and strains of fostering contribute to the complexity and individual nature of support needs: every carer, family and child is different (Schofield et al, 2013). The stresses and strains of providing foster care have been documented over the past twenty years through numbers of research projects and include: coping with the special needs of children; lack of specialist support for children's complex needs; experienced lack of support and respect from professional foster care staff; role ambiguity (volunteer or professional, parent or worker, part of the care team around the child or not); trauma associated with planned or unplanned loss of a child; allegations of abuse and lack of support or information to deal with these; vicarious trauma due to the frontline caring for a traumatised child; lack of opportunity to participate in decisions about children's future; effects on the carers' own children and the caring family; relationships with parents of the children in care; and being required to undertake care types which the carer did not anticipated they would need to undertake, for example, when short term care becomes long-term; and lack of adequate financial support (Blythe et al, 2014;Gurney, 2001;Manley et al, 2014;Roche & Noble-Carr, 2016;Schofield et al, 2013;Sinclair et al, 2004;Thompson et al, 2016;Thomson & McArthur, 2009Wilson et al, 2000).…”

Individualising or categorising recognition? Conceptual discussions concerning the relationship between foster children and their child welfare workers

“…When it comes to research on relational aspects of foster care, the main focus has been on the relationships between the foster children and their foster and birth families (e.g. Schofield, Beek, Ward, & Biggart, 2013).…”