Displaying 1 - 9 of 9
The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the experience of birth children of foster parents. The study examines the retrospective narratives of 14 Israeli adults, ages 18–38, whose families fostered a child for at least one year in the context of the Israeli foster care system. In-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed according to the grounded theory method. A central theme is the sense of invisibility that begins with the lack of involvement of the children of the foster parents in the decision to become a foster family and continues with the parents' and the social workers…
Abstract
This study examined the associations between exposure to armed conflict, perceived support, work experience, needing help, and post-traumatic distress among Israeli social workers in foster care agencies based on Conservation of Resources theory. The study used a mixed-methods design. Six months after the end of an armed conflict, 82 social workers responded to a web-based questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions. Results showed that exposure to the armed conflict was moderately associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms and functional impairment. Only the workers'…
ABSTRACT
Background: Being a foster parent is stressful. It becomes even more stressful when foster parents face major threats to their own families and to the foster children in their care, such as during war situations. This study focuses on foster parents' reactions to the war with Gaza in southern Israel that took place in 2014. The first goal of this study was to describe posttraumatic symptoms (PTS) and problems in functioning among foster parents following their exposure to the war. The second goal was to identify background and social support predictors of PTS and functioning…
Abstract
Studies have revealed that young people who age out of residential or foster care (care leavers) must cope with a variety of challenges as they transition to adulthood. In addition, there are wide gaps in achievements in different life domains between care leavers and other people in their age group. Using a narrative approach, the study presented in this article analyzed the life stories of 16 care leavers in Israel. To shed light on their subjective experiences in life after care, data were collected four years after the participants left residential care. The analysis…
Abstract
This paper addresses the challenges and benefits of involving biological parents in group homes in Israel and presents various means to encourage their involvement in care. Using family systems theories and the concept of co-parenting, it analyses the fragile and complex relationship caseworkers and foster parents have with biological parents. The paper presents four components that might play a role in encouraging parental involvement to benefit their children's adjustment. The components are demonstrated through case studies and include assessing the family profile; addressing…
Abstract
Summary
This qualitative study explores the unique views about the family system held by adolescents who have spent years in foster care in Israel. This inductive study is among the few to address the unheard views held, and the salient challenges faced, by adolescents who have not grown up in their biological parents’ home, with a focus on their view of the family.
Findings
Participants’ demonstrated conflicting, polarizing perceptions of the family: (a) family is a genetic system: blood is thicker than water; (b) the family system is constructed and limited by…
This Masters thesis paper, by Michael Maher King of the University of Oxford, reviews the situations of children in institutional alternative care in Israel and Japan. According to the paper, Japan and Israel are significant outliers in the global trend towards deinstitutionalisation of alternative care for children. Ninety per cent of children entering care in Japan, and eighty per cent of children entering care in Israel are placed into institutions, some of which can house over two hundred children. This qualitative research explores whether there are any shared mechanisms behind the…
The aim of this paper is to define social and psychological problems faced by children of unknown parentage in foster families in the governorate of Muscat, Oman.
This paper describes a study that assessed the attitudes of people in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan toward the implementation of foster care as an alternative to institutions for children. According to the paper, many middle and low-income countries continue to utilize large institutional settings as the predominant model of alternative care for children, despite growing evidence that these settings are detrimental to children's development. Middle Eastern children and youth who have been institutionalized often experience a high degree of stigma upon returning to…