Understanding the Relationship Between Birth and Foster Parents: A Systematic Review

Most Dutch foster children live permanently in foster families. It is often assumed that foster children have ambivalent loyalties and attachments to their birth parents and foster parents and are torn between the two. In this study 59 children between 10 and 18 years placed in long term foster care completed standardised questionnaires on the relationship with their parents respectively foster parents and their wellbeing. Results show that, on average, foster children have positive feelings of loyalty and attachment towards both their foster parents and biological parents. However, their wellbeing appeared mainly related with stronger attachment representations towards their foster parents. This study found no indications for a competing position of biological parents and foster parents from the perspective of the child. Nevertheless, foster children who see their foster and biological parents as more vulnerable or experience stronger normative boundaries, feel worse compared to children who experience this feelings less.

ABSTRACTChildren in family foster care have the right to participate in decisions regarding their life, however, adults often advocate on behalf of children. This Q methodological study explored whether shared perspectives among foster parents and care workers resemble shared perspectives of youth regarding the psychosocial needs experienced by youth with a history of sexual abuse. Participants sorted a set of statement cards according to what they thought was most important for youth. By-person factor analyses examined how the Q sorts of foster parents and care workers related to those of youth. The results showed that foster parents mostly recognized the group of youth who value an instrumental relationship with their carers, while care workers mostly recognized the group of youth who value support of both foster and birth parents with regard to their preparation for independent living. The two youth groups characterized by ambivalence and autonomy were barely recognized. Results are discussed in light of the expected roles of foster parents and care workers, and youth’s contact with birth parents. Lastly, this study highlights the importance of youth participation, because youth offer unique and varying perspectives about their needs.

Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) is a systems reform approach aimed at strengthening the quality parenting practices of foster parents, and their support by child welfare workers. QPI has been implemented in over 80 jurisdictions across 10 states; however, no external evaluation has informed its development. This study explored perceptions of QPI's impact on the foster parent experience, with a particular focus on foster parent involvement in implementation efforts and strengthening stakeholder relationships. Semi‐structured qualitative interviews were conducted with non‐relative foster parents (N = 31). Data were analysed through thematic analysis, and a codebook was developed to adequately capture patterns in perspectives across the interviews. Study findings indicate that QPI improved the relationships between foster and birth parents through specialized training and peer‐support groups that challenged biases, articulated the roles and expectations of caregivers, and cultivated a team‐based approach to meet the best interests of children in care. Foster care agencies may benefit from incorporating strategies that promote frequent, positive interactions across stakeholders. Strengthening these relationships may be the first step in reimagining the roles of foster parents in family reunification.

Although foster care involves many different relationships that have been examined for many years, few researchers have paid attention to the relationship that must inevitably develop between the foster parents and the child's birth parents. Foster parents have, nonetheless, been noted to express negative feelings about the behaviour of the foster child's natural family. This may have negative effects on the development of the child's self esteem and on the outcome of the entire placement. The cun'ent paper illustrates how the foster parents of 127 placements in Cork city described the birth parents of their foster children. Although 38% of placements were with parents who expressed some degree of sympathy for the birth parents, the attitude was generally more negative. This was true even of foster parents who never met the child. Parents also reported that they experienced various problems with the natural parents. These included concerns over the care that was taken of the child, that the natural parents were untrustwOlthy, and that the child would not be released for adoption . Examples of the statements that were made are offered, and some cases are described to help illustrate the frustration that some foster parents felt. It was found that one of the most emotive issues was that of adoption, Many foster parents felt upset when the birth parents refused to release the foster child for adoption. The implications of these poor relationships are discussed in relation to the need for more resources for health boards, and more support for foster parents and natural parents.

This study examines the behaviors and attitudes of 324 israeli foster parents toward birth parents and caseworkers. Although the foster parents generally expressed positive attitudes toward both birth parents and caseworkers, their contacts with both were minimal. Most foster parents did not encourage mutual visitation, were generally not involved in the birth parents' lives, and felt that the foster child belonged to them more than to the birth parents. Implications for visitation and reunification are discussed.

The importance for foster children's well-being of good relations between foster parents and birth parents is a common topic of research. This article aims to contribute to an understanding of how co-parenting by foster parents and birth parents works in everyday life, from both parties' perspectives, whether or not they knew each other previously. The 10 studied cases, comprising altogether 19 interviews, concern teenage placements and are almost equally divided between kinship, network, and traditional foster families. This article claims that for co-parenting to be possible it is of vital importance to have an “open foster family”, one that is open and welcoming toward the birth parents. Such openness includes the provision of regular information to the birth parents about the everyday life of their child, mutual planning of the child's situation, and, most beneficially, invitations for face-to-face encounters between youth, foster parents, and birth parents. Both parties' mutual engagement with the foster youth serves as the foundation of the cooperation. The service and support that social workers can offer in this process is important. Due to similarities between the family cultures, cooperation is facilitated in kinship foster families.

Guided by narrative theorizing, the present study analyzed the ways foster parents create and tell foster entrance narratives (FENs) to their foster child. Thematic and content analyses of 101 foster parents’ FENs illuminated nine emergent themes—birth parent consequences, deep connection, special, untold, birth parent learning, temporary, pragmatic, forever, and better off. Structural equation modeling revealed significant relationships between FEN themes and foster parents’ perceptions of foster child adjustment and foster parent–child relational closeness. Findings demonstrate the way foster parents narratively manage birth parent identity, how FENs clarify family boundaries, and the impact of (not) telling FENs on relationships outside the family.

Inspired by Merton and Barber’s sociological theory on ambivalence, this article analyses ‘co-parenting’ between foster parents and birth parents as prototypes of ambivalent relationships; that is, relationships based on incompatible role requirements. This incompatibility is rooted in the conflicts between (a) the professional role of foster carers and their emotional involvement in the child in their care, and (b) the status of birth parents as ‘failed parents’ (from the perspective of the authorities) and their continuous aspirations to get their child home again. The article is based on qualitative interviews with foster parents and birth parents of children in foster care in Denmark. We show how the structural ambivalence is associated with difficulties, for both foster parents and birth parents, in translating the principle of ‘the best interest of the child’ into concrete practice in out-of-home placements.

Support needs and satisfaction of Flemish foster parents in long-term foster care: Associated characteristics of foster children, foster parents and foster placements

Despite their explicit focus on family functioning and mounting evidence of the intergenerational mechanisms of childhood experiences (Zhang et al., 2022), very little is known about the parents of the high-risk youth receiving Intensive Home-Based Treatment (IHBT). Knowledge about parents' childhood experiences of risk and resilience, which are known to impact parenting behaviors, may provide insight into the complex clinical presentations frequently seen in this population and help guide the implementation of maximally effective interventions. The goal of this study was to examine and characterize the childhood experiences of parents whose children are enrolled in a community-based IHBT. Using a sample of 6,722 parents of children receiving IHBT, we collected parents' reports of their Adverse Childhood Events (ACE) and Resilient Childhood Events (RCE). In addition to examining the rates and profiles of ACEs and RCEs for the total sample, we examined how these rates and profiles differed between birth and non-birth parents. On average, parents reported 3.5 ACE (sd = 2.8) and 7.9 RCE (sd = 2.0). ACE and RCE scores were negatively related (r = - .43, p < .001). Compared to non-birth parents (e.g., kinship caregivers, foster parents), birth parents had higher ACE scores (3.7 vs. 2.8) and lower RCE scores (7.8 vs. 8.4). This study found high rates of reported childhood adversity among birth and non-birth parents of youth receiving IHBT. Both groups also reported substantial childhood resiliency-building experiences, highlighting the complexity of these variables. Non-birth parents in our sample presented with lower ACEs and higher resiliency-building experiences than birth parents, but the clinical implications of this trend will require further investigation. Taken together, the present findings lend additional empirical support to the notion that parents in IHBTs - whether biologically related or not to their children - present with childhood experiences that may differ from other parents and may meaningfully impact treatment outcomes. Thoughtful, multidisciplinary, and mixed methods unpacking is needed to form the basis of future policy and practice recommendations.

The ethnic identity complexity of transculturally placed foster youth in the Netherlands

ABSTRACTOver recent decades, listening to children's voices and viewing children as competent actors has gathered momentum in research as well as in practice. Acknowledging children's perspectives requires sensitive listeners who are willing, deliberately and as realistically as possible, to reconstruct children's ways of seeing. In our study, based in Norway, we investigated the views of 22 adolescents in long‐term foster care and 15 of their birth parents and 21 of their foster parents. Using Q methodology, we explored congruence and incongruence in the perception of ‘family’ among foster parents, birth parents and their adolescent (foster) children. We found three family perspectives among the adolescents. Within two of these perspectives, there seem to be more congruent understandings of the children's perspectives among the parent groups. We discuss some main implications in light of these findings. In Norway, as in many other countries, the policy of child welfare is that children first and foremost should grow up with their birth family. When out‐of‐home placements are necessary, a basic principle is that children should remain in contact with their birth family.

The role of the kinship foster parent: A comparison of the role conceptions of relative and non-relative foster parents

Reviewed by: To the End of June: The intimate Life of American Foster Care by Cris Beam Debra M. J. Palmer, DNP (bio) To the End of June: The intimate Life of American Foster Care by Cris Beam. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. 336 pp. Available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book forms. In To the End of June; the intimate life of foster care in America Cris Beam provides hope for the dysfunctional American foster care system (FCS) but not without first bringing to light the historical, social, and economic background of the present day FCS. Reading this book is certain to ignite the flame of motivation to fix this broken system. The ideal audience for this book includes child advocates of all types, especially policymakers, physicians, nurses, psychologists, and social workers, as well as those interested in evidence-based cost-effective health care. The author is well suited to write on the topic of foster care. She is a professional writer, journalist, and creative writing instructor as well as a foster care parent and former runaway teenager. Her work is supported by 36 pages of notes documenting a wide range of sources that support an in-depth analysis consistent with those by other health policy researchers into the American foster care system.1 Beam uses first person narratives to focus an intimate look into the history of several foster youth from Brooklyn as they enter and leave the FCS. Woven into the stories are relevant historical facts provided to give social, historical and economic contest to their stories. She concludes the book on a positive note, sharing examples of innovative programs designed to make a difference for youth suffering in the system and recent foster care policy changes in several states that aim to decrease the need for foster care as well as the cost, in dollars, pain, and suffering. The author examines the foster care system from the perspective of all participants in the system: foster, adoptive and birth parents; children; and those who advocate for them. Ms. Beam recounts her own interactions with students and their families who are in the FCS, her experiences as a foster parent, and the experience of one teenager who permanently ran away from a dysfunctional home at the age of 16. The book is written in three sections entitled Catch, Hold, and Release. The first section, Catch, describes the historical and present day ways in which children enter the foster care system and how the system has evolved from being a resource for parents too impoverished to care for their children to a resource for children who are at risk of harm or neglect by their parents. There are several disturbing facts presented that suggest children are often removed from birth families unjustly, with little hope of subsequently leaving the broken system, as they are shuffled from one foster home to another. [End Page 1472] The Hold section identifies the growing number of children caught in the system with no anticipated resolution to their homelessness. They are often not returned to their family of origin or successfully placed in a foster or adoption home. There is often a tug of war between parents and the system as policies change frequently between favoring birth parents (reunification at all costs) and policies that favor early intervention and placement into adoptive homes to provide early stability. Beam provides examples of placement decisions based on numbers and formulas rather than the need to secure a caring home. As children age they become less likely to be adopted into loving homes and are often placed in residential care facilities, boarding homes, or apartments living on their own until they “age out” or can legally leave the system. Frequently, these foster care veterans age out without having secured a high school education or training in a trade. Beam laments the discordant fact that housing a youngster during this phase often costs the state more than the average annual cost of room, board, and tuition in a private school. Release, the third section of the book, outlines four outcomes for children in foster care. The first is to be released into another level of foster care...

Physician parents, particularly women, are more likely to experience burnout, poor family-career balance, adverse maternal and fetal outcomes, and stigmatization compared with nonparent colleagues. Because many physicians delay child-rearing due to the rigorous demands of medical training, favorable parental leave policies for faculty physicians are crucial to prevent physician workforce attrition. To evaluate paid and unpaid parental leave policies at medical schools ranked by US News & World Report in 2020 and identify factors associated with leave policies. This cross-sectional national study was performed at US medical schools reviewed from December 1, 2019, through May 31, 2020, and February 1 through March 31, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All medical schools ranked by US News & World Report in 2020 were included. The primary outcome was the number of weeks of paid and unpaid leave for birth, nonbirth, adoption, and foster care physician parents. Institutional policies for the number of weeks of leave and requirements to use vacation, sick, or disability leave were characterized. Institutional factors were evaluated for association with the duration of paid parental leave using χ2 tests. Among the 90 ranked medical schools, 87 had available data. Sixty-three medical schools (72.4%) had some paid leave for birth mothers, but only 13 (14.9%) offered 12 weeks of fully paid leave. While 11 medical schools (12.6%) offered 12 weeks of full paid leave for nonbirth parents, 38 (43.7%) had no paid leave for nonbirth parents. Adoptive and foster parents had no paid leave in 35 (40.2%) and 65 (74.7%) medical schools, respectively. Median paid parental leave was 4 (IQR, 0-8) weeks for birth parents, 4 (IQR, 0-6) weeks for adoptive parents, 3 (IQR, 0-6) weeks for nonbirth parents, and 0 (IQR, 0-1) weeks for foster parents. About one-third of medical schools required birth mothers to use vacation (29 [33.3%]), sick leave (31 [35.6%]), or short-term disability (9 [10.3%]). Among institutional characteristics, higher ranking (top vs bottom quartile: 30.4% vs 4.0%; P = .03) and private designation (private vs public, 23.5% vs 9.4%; P < .001) was associated with a higher rate of 12 weeks of paid leave for birth mothers. In this cross-sectional national study of medical schools ranked by US News & World Report in 2020, many physician faculty receive no or very limited paid parental leave. The lack of paid parental leave was associated with higher rates of physician burnout and work-life integration dissatisfaction and may further perpetuate sex, racial and ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in academic medicine.