Child Foster Parents Research Articles

The Challenges and Resources of Adoptive and Long-Term Foster Parents of Children with Trauma Histories: A Mixed Methods Study

Adoption can be an important protective factor for foster children; however, if adoptive parents are not adequately prepared to deal with trauma-based difficulties, such children remain at risk for negative outcomes. The present study used mixed methods to access the lived experiences of parents adopting children from foster care. Results indicated that adopted children’s behavioral difficulties strongly contributed to parental stress. However, number of resources did not moderate the relation between child behavior problems and parenting stress, and parents reported that some "resources" promoted stress. Results have important implications for interventions with such parents.

The effects of COVID-19 pandemic on stress and difficulties in foster parents of children with intellectual disabilities: effects of the online specialized support

Foster care of children with intellectual disabilities raises important problems. Much evidence suggests that foster parents of children with special needs face elevated levels of stress and care difficulties. We examined the differences between foster parents who received and those who did not receive online support during the COVID-19 pandemic in the level of emotional mental health, objective and subjective care stress. Results showed that helpful online support during the COVID-19 pandemic is significantly related with fewer children’s problem behaviours. Actions related to stress in foster care of children with disabilities during COVID-19 pandemic are recommended.

Supports Mechanisms and Needs of Foster Parents of Children Living with HIV in South Africa

Supports Mechanisms and Needs of Foster Parents of Children Living with HIV in South Africa

Special Needs Adoption and Foster Exigencies (SAFE): A Model for Case Managers

Children with special needs disproportionately receive child welfare services in out-of-home placements, such as foster and adoptive homes. This theoretical model has been developed to describe or explain exigencies of adoptive and foster families of children with special needs (n = 82). A web content analysis, including theme, feature, link, exchange, and language analyses, of online discussion forums of adoptive and foster parents of children with special needs using a phenomenological framework was conducted. Inductive and quantitative web content analyses were conducted on themes. Parenting concerns were clustered into two main themes, disability and placement issues, and focused on children’s pre and post placement needs. A phenomenological analysis resulted in the development of the Special Needs Adoption and Foster Exigencies (SAFE), which outlines exigencies of adoptive and foster parents of children with special needs during engagement, assessment, and intervention phases of case management.

Unretired and Better than Ever: Older Adults as Foster Parents for Children

The authors explore issues concerning employing older adults as foster parents for children. A survey of agencies in the United States suggests that agencies that utilize older adults as foster parents experience benefits, including elders' abilities to impart life experience and to offer a high degree of tolerance and time flexibility. Older foster parents, when surveyed, reported that fostering benefited them, citing pleasures they derived and defining contributions gained to their own welfare. The authors recommend strategies for agencies to recruit older adults as foster parents as well as public consciousness-raising efforts that promote the value gained by society and the older adults when they choose second careers in child care.

Highlights of the 1999 Institute on Psychiatric Services

Highlights of the 1999 Institute on Psychiatric Services

Foster parents' early adaptation to the placement of a child with developmental disabilities in their home

Eight foster parents of children with developmental disabilities (DD) were interviewed about their early adaptation to placement of the child in their homes. Analysis using a grounded theory methodology showed important adaptations in the physiological, role function, interdependence, and self-concept modes of adaptation. Parents described less attention to their own physical health, dominance of the parenting role over all other roles, decreased social interactions, and a sense of personal satisfaction in response to placement of a child with DD in their homes. Implications for nursing practice are included.

Social Catastrophe: Orphaned by AIDS-Reply

ABSTRACT In Reply. —We commend the Families' and Children's AIDS Network in Chicago, Ill, for its foresight in addressing the needs of surviving children and new guardians. In New York, NY, the Child Welfare Administration's Early Permanency Planning Project has a similar goal: to identify foster parents for children who will survive their mother's death and to establish close relationships while the mother is still alive. Local efforts like the Second Family Program are urgently needed, in addition to state and federal initiatives.We also support Dr Clever's call for effective HIV prevention programs for women. Nevertheless, even if such programs were to be implemented and to reduce transmission rates significantly, the impact on the numbers of motherless children and teenagers in our study would be minimal. Most of the children we describe already have HIV-infected mothers. We believe that the growing numbers of these youth and their unmet needs warrant

Outcomes of Adoption of Children with Special Needs

Outcomes of Adoption of Children with Special Needs