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WILLINGNESS OF FOSTER PARENTS TO CONTINUE FOSTER PRACTICE AND THEIR PERSPECTIVE ON THE ROLE IN COOPERATION WITH SOCIAL CARE CENTRES
Maja Laklija
orcid.org/0000-0002-2580-4983
; Studijski centar socijalnog rada, Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
In order to ensure quality foster care for children and keep the present foster parents, an increasing attention is paid to the factors related to maintaining their foster parents’ role and to the quality of relationship with social care system professionals. Therefore the paper aims to determine: (1) the connection of the characteristics of the foster child, the perceived preparation phase of fostering and its influence on the foster family, the quality of contacts with the child’s family and the professional support with the readiness of a foster parent to continue with the fostering practice; (2) the difference of the foster perception of the own role in cooperation with the social care centres regarding perceived cooperation and support of professionals, attitude toward fostering, self-respect, motives and length of fostering experience and support, and (3) the difference in perception of willingness to continue with fostering practice regarding the perceived role in cooperation with professionals. The sample consists of 279 foster mothers. A greater readiness to continue with the fostering practice is expressed by foster parents that are not relatives to the foster child, have more experience in fostering, that have been in charge of the foster child for a longer period of time and of female gender. Foster parents who see themselves as partners in cooperation with social care centres express greater satisfaction with services, the level to which their opinion is respected and the support of the social care centre than those that consider themselves clients and service providers. Furthermore, “service providers” to a greater extent require guidelines/instructions, emotional and moral support and exhibit a more expressed motive of childhood/fostering experience than “partners”. Foster parents that see themselves as clients are less willing to maintain the foster role than “partners”. The obtained data indicate some possible aspects of improvement of fostering practice.
Ključne riječi
maintaining; foster status; role; cooperation with professionals
Hrčak ID:
75420
URI
Datum izdavanja:
28.12.2011.
Posjeta: 2.906 *