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Experiencing the Transformation of the Caregivers' Role in Foster Care
KÁROVÁ, Ilona
The subject of the presented thesis focuses on foster care exercised by children´s relatives. The target is to ascertain possible different roles in kinship foster care and different attitudes to the aforementioned, record the experience of kinship care givers, their viewing and experiencing of childcare. I wanted to know if fostering had brought any positives into their lives and on the other hand if there are any negatives related to such care. The theoretic part of my thesis describes the history of foster care in different periods, explains the terms like family, social role and attachment. Furthermore, particular forms of foster care are explained and foster care exercised by children´s relatives is described in more details. Attention is also paid to the relationship and contact between a child and his/her parents. The Authority for social and legal protection of children (OSPOD in Czech) has an essential role in foster care together with assisting organizations, which are described in the last chapter of the theoretic part. I used qualitative methodology for research purposes and semi-structured interviews for collection of data. The research file contained eight respondents which were selected based on simple purpuseful sampling. The research file consisted of foster parents caring for children of their relatives. I determined reasons why the children had been placed into foster care, how the foster parents experience such care and how they view it themselves. The results of the interview analysis helped me to uncover and understand the basis of kinship foster care. According to similar signs, they were divided into several areas. The first area focused on the reasons why the child had been placed into kinship foster care. The main reasons included various types of addictions, child neglect, failure to provide suitable housing or lack of interest in the child. The second area related to the feelings of foster mothers when accepting the child. Their decision-making process is described here, including their motivation and fears related to fostering. In most cases, foster mothers had enough time for making their decisions on fostering. Half of the foster mothers found it natural; the other half had ambivalent feelings for it. The third area is dedicated to changes in wider personal relationships and relationships in the family, in particular, to the impact of foster care on relations between partners and the potential influence on the relationship of foster parents with their own children. Relations with biologic children of the foster parents had an important role as well. The fourth area includes basic characteristics of childcare. Most foster mothers noticed significant changes in their lives. Foster care had a negative impact on the quality of their lives but it principally became a source of vitality and optimism for them. Foster mothers faced problem situations related to intergenerational differences, behaviour of children and problems at school. They also worried often about the future of their foster children. Some foster mothers accepted the role of a mother that predominated over their other life roles. Others had no problems in separating their roles and shifting from one role to another. Most conflicts in the role appeared when the child was fostered by his/her grandmother. The last area contains conditions that have helped foster mothers to reduce the burden of foster care. Foster mothers appreciated help of their families, which they preferred, and sufficient financial security. They gladly accepted the help of assisting organizations and the services offered by them. Mandatory education and the possibility to share their experience with other foster parents were of great importance too.
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