Going beyond “Who” and “How”: Expanding understanding of foster coparenting through the application of contextual action theory and action-project method

Abstract

Despite evidence from studies of other types of families that higher quality coparenting likely contributes to positive socioemotional development and adjustment of children, little attention has been paid to foster coparenting. This investigation applied contextual action theory and action-project method to the study of foster coparenting and the integration of children into the family. Four long-term foster parent couples participated in video-recorded conversations and video recall interviews. The illustrative findings hold the potential to add to the foster parent training literature by demonstrating how this approach to studying coparenting expands structural approaches. The action project method assists in accessing coparents’ internal processes that steer their actions and joint actions and the social meaning of their actions in relation to the social context of foster parenting.