Support Needs and Satisfaction in Foster Care: Differences Between Foster Mothers and Foster Fathers

Vanderfaeillie, Johan; Holen, Frank Van; Maeyer, Skrällan De; Gypen, Laura; Belenger, Laurence Marie

doi:10.1007/s10826-015-0320-6

Cited by 27 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…“Keeping a distance” may be part of all foster mothers' professional approach. Similar to what several other studies report, all the foster mothers in our study approached foster motherhood as their profession (e.g., Blythe, Wilkes, & Halcomb, ; Kirton, ; Vanderfaeillie, Van Holen, De Maeyer, Gypen, & Belenger, ). This enabled them to keep an acceptable distance.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

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

Wubs

Batstra

Grietens

2018

Child & Family Social Work

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The impact of sexual abuse on children is enormous, particularly when a child is abused sexually by a mother figure. In order to gain insight into the experiences of this rarely studied group, the life stories of four foster mothers of victims of maternal sexual abuse were collected. The narratives were coded inductively, and several topics concerning foster motherhood were studied more in-depth. Four key themes emerged in the women's narratives: their attitude towards the abusing female, the foster child's sexual behaviour towards the foster mother, the emotional and physical distance of the foster mothers towards their foster child, and lastly, their sense of responsibility. The four foster mothers continuously balance between fostering their foster child as a parent and responding as a professional caregiver. The consequences of being a foster mother of a victim of maternal sexual abuse should be more socially acknowledged. KEYWORDSchild sexual abuse, foster care, maternal sexual abuse, narrative research, parental identity, professional identity 1 | INTRODUCTION "Because she reacted to me like that, I always felt that she learned that behavior from her mother," a foster mother told us, reflecting on her foster child's behaviour. As this girl, 10 years of age, showed sexualized behaviour to her as a female, this foster mother believed the girl had been abused by her biological mother. Her comment illustrates the complicated position women may have in fostering a victim of maternal sexual abuse.According to McLeod (2015), female offenders are far more likely to abuse their own children than men, as almost 80% of the offending women in his study were listed as the victim's parent. Also, women seem more inclined to offend against young children than male offenders. Although the consequences for all child victims of sexual abuse are grave, the abuse is experienced as severe particularly when victims are strongly familiar with the perpetrator, for example, when the offender is a child's mother (Young, Riggs, & Robinson, 2011).Next to physical intrusiveness, force by someone well known to the victim makes child sexual abuse "a frightening, shameful and isolating experience" (p. 384). Tsopelas, Tsetsou, Ntounas, and Douzenis (2012) note that children are overwhelmed with conflicting feelings of hate and love, especially when they hold a close (familial) relation to the abusers. When a child is sexually abused by a mother figure, the child is denied the feeling that their mother, one of the most important primary attachment figures, is safe (Etherington, 1997;Peter, 2006). Consequently, as a child's abuse experience colours the perception of people in their world being trustworthy (McFadden, 1989), a foster child with a history of maternal sexual abuse may perceive a foster mother as potentially threatening.In general, foster mothers hold a traditionally gendered role in the fostering process, meaning they are considered to be the homemakers or main carers (Heslop, 2014). This seems especially true when a fam...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

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

Wubs

Batstra

Grietens

2018

Child & Family Social Work

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“…While the parenting role involves both the demands of the dyadic relationship and the daily burden of providing care, parental stress occurs when parents find that they do not have sufficient resources to meet the demands of parenting (Berry & Jones, 1995;Leung & Tsang, 2010). The stress of caring for a foster child can affect the carer's ability to provide a stable and permanent home and may result in difficulties in maintaining the caregiver role (Blythe et al, 2014;Diaz, 2017;Vanderfaeillie et al, 2016). It may result also in foster placement breakdowns (Cole & Eamon, 2007;Vanschoonlandt et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the psychometric examination of the PSS had previously been undertaken with parents, this study has found that the parenting role, as perceived by foster parents, is not dissimilar to parenting in general, and the two dimensions of parent stress and parent satisfaction/reward were found to be the same. One of the primary differences for foster parents is that children enter their care at different ages and with preexisting experiences, including neglect, abuse, behavioral problems, and psychosocial and emotional difficulties, such that carers may be overwhelmed by the demands of parenting the child in their care and lack of control over their role (Berry & Jones;Blythe et al, 2014;Diaz, 2017;Leung & Tsang, 2010;McKeough et al, 2017;Tarren-Sweeney, 2014;Vanderfaeillie et al, 2016;Whenan et al, 2009). The four-factor structure of the PSS, as established by Berry and Jones (1995), was not supported with the current sample.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Key findings from research using the PSI included stressors that were generated by the parent or carer's challenges, including social changes, role conflicts, and expectations (Cole & Eamon, 2007;Murray et al, 2011). The challenges parents and carers face when a child exhibits social, emotional, and behavioral problems, with limited support and resources, such as respite care, counseling, ongoing training, and open communication, can create high levels of stress and negative perceptions of the child (Harding et al, 2018;McKeough et al, 2017;Vanderfaeillie et al, 2016;Whenan et al, 2009). The Parental Stress Scale (PSS) was developed by Berry and Jones (1995) to assess a parent's self-report of negative and positive aspects of the parent-child relationship focusing on the perception of parenting stress, rather than specific stressors, and also assessing positive feelings about parenting in the form of satisfaction.…”

Section: Assessing Positive and Negative Aspects Of Parentingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding the Parental Stress Scale With a Foster Carer Cohort

et al. 2020

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Objective Using a cohort of foster and kin carers, the research examined the underlying factor structure of the Parental Stress Scale (PSS; Berry & Jones, 1995). A hypothesized underlying two‐dimensional theoretical model was explored. Background With the growing demands on the foster care system, including poor retention and recruitment of foster carers, there is an urgent need to explore the positive and negative factors that may influence carers continued engagement in the role. Method The factor structure of the PSS was examined in a sample of foster and kin carers in Australia (N = 324). The PSS consists of 10 statements addressing stressful aspects of parenting and eight statements addressing satisfying aspects of parenting. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) explored the underlying theoretical structure of the scale as determined by the developers. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to confirm whether four factors would sustain reduction to a two‐dimensional (satisfaction–stress) model. Results EFA and CFA supported a two‐dimensional moderately correlated model measuring parent stress and parent satisfaction. The Parent Stress Index IV Short Form provided concurrent validity for the PSS stress subscale and previous analyses have also identified the strength of these dimensions over time, cohorts, and contexts. Conclusion The current study supports using the subscale scores in research with foster carers and potentially other populations to better capture both stress and rewards and satisfaction related to their parenting role. Implications Application of the PSS subscales can assess interactions or moderating effects of parenting in specific cohorts, making the PSS a valuable instrument to examine the balance between stress and reward for parents, foster parents and others who are “parenting” children.

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“…, Vanderfaeille et al . , Wilson and Evetts ). In fact, the inadequacy of remuneration has potentially reinforced the perception of caring as being altruistically motivated (Colton et al .…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

Inter‐professional practice in the prevention and management of child and adolescent self‐harm: foster carers’ and residential carers’ negotiation of expertise and professional identity

Jennings

Evans

2020

Sociology Health & Illness

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Inter-professional collaboration remains a significant concern within healthcare and social care. However, there has been scant attention paid to practices at the interface of clinicians and carers, namely foster carers and residential carers. The present study considers child and adolescent self-harm management and prevention practices as a site of empirical interest due to reports that multi-agency teams are not effectively operating. Drawing upon a grounded theory approach, data were generated via semi-structured interviews and focus groups with residential carers (n = 15) and foster carers (n = 15) in Wales. Themes were developed through axial coding. The results present two central themes to explain the nature and perceived causes of inter-professional discord. First, there are clear contestations in expertise, with carers challenging clinicians' propositional knowledge in favour of their own experiential expertise. However, participants simultaneously endorse medical dominance, which contributes to their sense of disempowerment and marginalisation. Second, is the preclusion of carers' professional identity, primarily due to inadequate professionalisation procedures. Meanwhile, the privileging of their parenting role is perceived to support the perpetuation of courtesy stigma. Carers are then compelled to undertake the effortful labour of legitimisation. Together these thematic insights provide direction on mechanisms to improve inter-professional interactions, notably around training and accreditation.

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Support Needs and Satisfaction in Foster Care: Differences Between Foster Mothers and Foster Fathers

Cited by 27 publications

References 27 publications

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

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

Understanding the Parental Stress Scale With a Foster Carer Cohort

Inter‐professional practice in the prevention and management of child and adolescent self‐harm: foster carers’ and residential carers’ negotiation of expertise and professional identity

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