• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.87-113
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• 2006

The research was performed responding to the growing needs of Korean foster care programs. It deals specifically with the people who voluntarily provide foster care despite the lack of Government support. The research has also made an effort to understand how the foster parents perceive their parent roles for the foster children. According to the research results based on the parents from the H foster care center, it showed that foster parents generally come from higher educational backgrounds compared to their equivalent age group and also similar or even higher income levels than the average family residing in an urban area. Conclusively, their traits in socio-demographic factors is said to be homogeneous. The research also focused on examining the role perceptions of Korean foster parents. The foster parents were well aware and educated on the significance of the children's psychological adjustments. However, the research recognized some role responsibilities that the parents failed to understand. Hopefully the foster care centers will take on such responsibilities and contribute in helping the parents realize their insufficiencies. Based on the results of the research, the researcher was able to recognize the important issues involved in the recruitment, selection, and education process for the foster parents. Additionally, new role adjustments are necessary among both foster parents and foster centers.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.59-72
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• 2005

This study used secondary data of the Illinois Subsidized Guardianship Waiver Demonstration, Chicago Public Schools and administrative data of the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services. Multiple regression analysis was the main statistical method. Results revealed a positive effect of foster parents' expectations on educational achievement of foster children without disabilities. Among types of educational involvement, 'direct educational activities' showed a positive effect on math and 'supervision reported by children' showed a positive effect on reading achievement. Among indices of the quality of relationship: the presence of kinship ties, permanence achievement, and level of affection between foster parents and children, only level of affection had a significant positive association with both math and reading achievement.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.24 no.1 s.79
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• pp.103-116
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• 2006

The purpose of the study was to explore what kind of intervention might help foster parents decide to continue engaging in foster care. As foster care services are still in the early stages of development, lacking systematic support systems as well as full understanding of the roles of foster parents and foster care agencies, it is important to recruit, select, and train as many foster parents as possible. Utilizing the Foster Parent Role Perception scale developed by Le Prohn, the author first conceptualized foster parent roles or foster care agency roles; then explored what kind of effects the resource level or the role perception of the foster parents have on the decisions to continue doing foster care. The results showed that the foster parents perceived 'supporting the internal system of the foster child' and 'supporting the external system of the foster child' as the roles of foster parents, whereas 'fortifying the foster care system' and 'maintaining liaison with birth parents' were the roles of foster care agencies. It was also found that foster parents' strong role perception, higher levels of satisfaction towards education on the part of foster parents, and the number of children from the previous marriage had statistically significant positive effects on the decisions to continue foster care. The author argues that clear definitions of roles are needed for both foster parents and foster care agencies. Finally, the role of foster care agencies needs to be strengthened and supported.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.24 no.5 s.83
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• pp.141-159
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• 2006

It is generally blown that foster children often have special needs such as disability and psycho-behavioral problems. It is also known that foster parents will provide better care with those children when they are coping well with foster children with special needs. The purpose of the study was to explore the perceptions foster parents have and what factors affect their decisions to care for children with special needs. Literature review reveals that successful foster parent care is related to the foster parents' motivation, role perception, and social support systems. foster parents' motivation is related to 'altruism toward foster child', 'the egocentrism of the foster parent', 'previous experience with adoption' and 'the past experiences of the foster parent'. Role perceptions of the foster parent consist of 'supporting the internal system of the foster child' and 'supporting the external system of the foster child'. The social support system is characterized as the limited notions of a family oriented concept. In addition, a foster parent's decision to look after special-needs children is related to their motivation while the decision to foster disabled children is related to the levels of available social support systems as well as motivation. The results of the study implies that the motivation level and that of social support system are closely related to different aspects of the special-needs foster child; this factor should also be considered when recruiting foster parents or placing special needs children.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.40
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• pp.73-107
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to understand the rearing experience of parents who adopted a child for whom they were foster parents. Several cases of foster care adoption were found. We carried out individual interviews for data collection. Within-case and across-case analyses were conducted based on the data gathered from individual interviews of four cases. As a result, we were able to grasp significant issues from each case and find out common subjects found in all cases. The common subjects were 'special encounter: accident, connection, and inevitability', 'my child already', 'fundamental but insignificant difference', 'discontinuity in social support: things that are lost, and things that are gained', 'truth that is unable to hide, and truth that needs to be hidden', and 'family's destiny'. Based on the results of this study, policy recommendations and practice guidelines were suggested to help families undergoing adoption from foster care. Also, recommendations for further research were provided to overcome the study limitations.

• Social Workers
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• no.8 s.40
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• pp.4-11
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• 2005

현대사회에서 내 집 마련은 가정의 안정적 유지를 위한 기본적 요소이다. 그러나 지난 5월 통계청에서 발표한 '1/4분기 가계수지 동향'을 기준으로 가계소득 329만 1,000원인 도시근로자가 대출이나 부모의 도움 없이 저축만으로 내 집을 마련하는데 걸리는 기간은 서울 25평 아파트 20년 9개월, 32평형은 27년 5개월 걸리는 것으로 집계됐다. 그렇다면 '사회복지'라는 커다란 영역안에는 어떠한 형태의 집들이 존재할까? 우리나가 거의 대부분의 사회복지기관, 시설들은 지방자치단체에 의해 법인에게 위탁, 임대되어지는 것이 대부분이다. 물론 국가가 법인직영의 반위탁 형태로 운영되는 곳도 있지만 아주 극소수이다. 우리나라 지역복지의 핵심 주체인 지역사회복지관의 경우(한국사회복지관협회, 2005) 사회복지법인 289개소, 재단법인 47갯, 사단법인 9개소, 학교법인 22개소, 지방자치단체 직영이 14개로, 거의 대부분의 복지관이 민간위탁으로 운영되고 있다. 대부분이 전세집살이를 하고 있는 것이다. 이번호에서는 이러한 민간위탁의 미흡한 제도와 과정에 대한 현장의 소리를 들업고자 한다.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.43
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• pp.5-35
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to understand the practice experience of social workers in foster care center. This study applied a qualitative study and selected 7 social workers(4 middle-level managers and 3 in-line workers) who have worked for central and regional fostercare centers. We carried out individual interviews with them and conducted thematic analysisbased on data gathered from the individual interviews. We were able to grasp significantissues in foster care practices from analyses. The results of data analysis consisted of 4 themesand 15 sub-themes. The significant themes were 'policy objectives distanced from reality, unknown institution', 'loose network, missed service system', 'too much work, too many cases', 'excluded biological parents' roles, limited foster parents' roles'. Finally, the implications of thisstudy findings for child welfare policy and practice guidelines were discussed to improvefoster care centers.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.131-148
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• 2003

This study investigated family foster care characteristics according to types of foster parents-surrogate, kin, general parents and predicting factors of foster children's adjustability to new environment. Participants were 618 cases of foster parents in 17 areas of the country through stratified sampling. It was found that the surrogate foster parent, tends to be older, received less education, has lower income, and is in poor health, as opposed to kin parents or general foster parents. There were significant effects of foster parent's age, living arrangement, income, education, consideration of foster child, and the periods of foster care experience as well as child's sex, contact of biological parents on emotional, behavioral, and family relational adjustment of the foster children.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.425-456
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• 2006

This study investigated the adaptation process of abused children in long-term foster care and the stages of adaptation process. Also, this study aimed to find the factors influencing the adaptation of abused children in long-term foster care and to examine the relationships between the adaptation process in long-term foster care and the recovery of aftereffect of the abused children. The researchers tried to find the factors influencing the possibilities about the return of their biological parents' home. The researchers used a purposeful sampling and interviewed three abused children and three parents in long-term foster care and two social workers. This study utilized grounded theory approach of Strauss and Corbin(1990) to analyze the interviewed data. Specifically, the researchers applied open coding, axial coding and selective coding from grounded theory approach to analyze the data. On the other hand, the researchers used Miles and Huberman(1994)'s time-ordered matrix and time-ordered network to investigate the categories influencing the adaptation process of abused children in long-term foster care. This study used interviewees, literatures, newspapers, and internet resources relating to abused children for triangulation of data. The researcher interviewed from October 15, 2004 to January 31, 2005. The total sessions of each person were consisted of two sessions for each person and the interview time of each session was one or two hours.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.282-290
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• 2015

This study is intended to look into parents' satisfaction of contracting-out system in employer-supported childcare centers. To achieve this, a survey was carried out to 400 parents who use national, public and private employer-supported childcare centers. The results were as follows. First, employer-supported childcare factors were the qualities of childcare environment, childcare program and early childhood teacher in both contracted-out and in-house services. The satisfaction with facility, program, operation and childcare training was improved in good employer-supported childcare factors And the satisfaction with the relationship between these factors could improve the expectation for the use of employer-supported childcare centers. Second, the difference in the operation of employer-supported childcare centers showed that the most preferred size was 50 to 74 children. The contracted-out services was more preferred than in-house services. And the location of on-the-job facility was more preferred than off-the-job facility. As stated above, the preference of employer-supported childcare centers was more raised than that of general kindergartens or childcare centers by an increase in the trend of working child parents' dual income. In other words, small and medium sized childcare centers of some 50 children were more preferred than large scaled childcare centers. Consequently, the retainment of childcare programs, facilities and quality teachers contracted out to professional childcare centers can improve the satisfaction with them.