Foster Care Research

Nadine Lanctôt, Researcher, Université de Sherbrooke, CANADA  Mathilde Turcotte, Researcher, Université Laval, CANADA    This presentation aims to contribute to a better understanding of the placement experiences and their impacts throughout the lenses of ambiguous loss. Ambiguous loss is “an unclear loss that continues without resolution or closure” (Boss and Yeats, 2014: 63). Placement experiences could represent two forms of ambiguous loss. On one […]

Ramuné Bagdonait-Stelmokien, PhD student, university Lithuania Vytautas Magnus, university Lithuania  The paper sets out to discuss the experience of non-relative foster parents as reflected in their relationship with a foster child and a child’s biological family. It presents the results of the qualitative research. The chosen analysis strategy is a constructive grounded theory developed by Charmaz (2006, […]

Anne Steenbakkers, PhD student, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Steffie van der Steen, Researcher, University of Groningen, The Netherlands  Hans Grietens, Researcher University of Groningen, The Netherlands     Foster children have been disproportionately exposed to traumatic events (Turney & Wildeman, 2017), which are perceived as important factors contributing to problems and specific needs they experience (Berrick & Skivenes, 2012; Bruskas, 2008). Despite the growing interest in the stories […]

Chapon Nathalie, Researcher, Université Aix Marseille, France  The conference intends to weave research in France, on the experience of foster care, in reference to the support and care of the links between foster families, origin families and the children in care. The conference will be share research findings and questions on the pathways of children in foster care, their […]

Yafit Sulimani-Aidan, Researcher, Tel Aviv University, Israel  Background:  As youth leave care, their expectations and aspirations as well as their planning for their future lives are especially important. Although earlier studies examined these vulnerable young people’s challenges in transition to adulthood, they did not explore these challenges with regards to their own plans and expectations for their future. Therefore, […]

João Carvalho, Researcher, University Institute of Maia, Portugal  Paulo Delgado, Researcher, Escola Superior de Educação do Porto, Portugal  Vânia Pinto, PhD student, University of Oxford, United Kingdom     This study aims to analyse risk judgments and reunification decisions made by a sample of 200 professionals of the Portuguese child care system and 200 higher education students of social work and similar areas, in face of a case vignette […]

Dorijn Wubs, PhD student, University of Groningen, the Netherlands  Hans  Grietens, Researcher University of Groningen, the Netherlands  Laura  Batstra, Researcher, University of Groningen, the Netherlands     Although the consequences for all victims of child sexual abuse are serious, when a child is abused by mother figure, the abuse is considered to be especially harmful. Yet, maternal sexual abuse remains a taboo, as females are often not […]

Johan Vanderfaeillie, Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium  Ann Clé, Researcher, Vijre Universiteit Brussel, Belgium  Frank Van Holen, Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium       In Flanders, a family foster care placement is the option of choice for children in need of out-of-home care. For both birth parents and children, placing a child in out-of-home care is a far reaching decision. However, little is known about how children themselves live […]

Gunvor Andersson, Researcher, Lund University, School of Social Work, Sweden The primary study, initiating my longitudinal research project, was an in-depth study of all the (26) 0-4-year old children who were placed in the one remaining children´s home in a city in Sweden at some time during a two-year period at the beginning of the 1980s and stayed there […]