• 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.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.157-174
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• 2008

This study used the person-oriented approach to explore differences in narrative representations of 97 4-, 5- and 6-year old children (30 foster care, 40 biological family, 17 adopted). Using the MacArthur Story Stem Battery (Bretherton et al., 1990), observations were made to obtain children's narrative representations of content themes and performances. Descriptive statistics, ANOV A and hierarchical cluster analyses were performed. The results of this study were that : (1) Biological family children showed more empathy/helping representations. Foster care children and adopted children showed more anxious representations, and foster care children showed more dysregulated aggression. (2) Four clusters of foster care and adopted children and five clusters of family biological children were found.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.77-88
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to find out the characteristics of foster care of long-distance parents who meet their children on weekend and to examine the relationships among the separation anxiety and maternal guilt in foster care. The subject consisted of 138 employed mothers who are living separately with their children. The instruments used for this study were the Separation Anxiety Scale(Cho & Park,1992), the Maternal Guilt Scale(Kim & Kang, 1997), the Parental Satisfaction Scale(Hyun & Cho,1994), and the Parental Stress Scale(Park,1994). The main results of this study were as followings: 1. Mothers had a tend to rely on family members expecially grandparents for foster care of their children. They usually have visited to meet their children weekend and made a phone call once a day. Parental satisfaction in foster care was reported to be moderately high level. 2. The subject’s separation anxiety was found to be high, and it was strong positive relationships to maternal guilt feeling in foster care. The results of this study have implications for both formal and informal support systems of employed mothers with children. The findings of this study may used as basis for understanding long-distance parents’problems in foster care, developing support programs, and public policy for employed mothers.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.507-528
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• 2013

The study examined the mental representation of children in foster care through the MacArthur Story Stem Battery (MSSB) and reviewed difference between children in foster care and typical children in terms of mental representation. Subjects of the study included a total of 50 children: 25 children (11 boys and 14 girls), aged from 5 to 8, in foster care in Gyeonggi Province, and 25 typical children (11 boys and 14 girls), aged from 5 to 8, who lived in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The research findings are summarized as follows: First, in terms of mental representation, children in foster care showed less subjects of empathic relations and more subjects of disorganized aggression than typical children. Second, children in foster care showed lower coherence mental representation than typical children. Finally, children in foster care were more likely to fail in emotional regulation than typical children in mental representation.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.83-107
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• 2010

This study looked into the inner experience of foster mothers who adopted children under 3 months old and found out they were disabled while they were rearing with Van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological approach. In-depth interviews were used with six foster mothers who live in Seoul, Gwangju, Gyeongsangnam-do, and Jeollabuk-do. The study resulted in a hermeneutic writing with titled "Love of Mothers Who Want to Make Their Children's Dreams Come True" with six essential themes as follows: 'being at a loss wrapped in a dense fog,' 'venting off the frustration,' 'gratitude amid painfulness,' 'bold confrontation with prejudices,' 'disabled children's return to the center of their moms' life,' and 'expectation for their future life.' As they are disabled, foster mothers want to rear their children with more care and attention to make their children's dreams come true. Seen above, this could be interpreted as mothers' love to a life. For foster mothers, the disability of their adopted children is not a burden but an expectation for a new world. They help the children live by themselves. It shows that every child can have his own home.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.301-327
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine the timing and the risk factors associated with the adoption of legally-free foster children. The sample of the study was drawn from foster care files of Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System(AFCARS) in 32 states between October 1998 (FY 1999) and September 2002(FY 2002). The timing post-TPR to adoption was examined by plotting the Kaplan-Meier cumulative hazard function for adoption and by plotting the KM hazard functions stratified by child's race and child's age at TPR. Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for adoption of legally-free foster children after TPR. The hazard of adoption was very low immediately after TPR but increased steadily starting at 3 months and then declined after 20 months. The cumulative hazard functions for White non-Hispanic children and Black non-Hispanic children crossed over at 13 months after TPR. Racial minority status, older age, and disability were negatively associated with the hazard of adoption. Physical abuse, sexual abuse had the lower hazard for adoption compared by neglect. Caretaker's inability to cope had the slightly lower hazard for adoption whereas inadequate housing showed the slightly greater hazard for adoption. Characteristics of foster care services turned into be powerful predictors of adoption. Specifically, legally-free children placed in pre-adoptive homes, those who shared the same racial/ethnic background with their foster caretakers, and those who were placed in two-parent families have a greater likelihood of adoption. The findings highlight the importance of foster care service provisions after TPR to facilitate adoption of legally-free foster children. Furthermore, a more substantial resources and targeted support for foster children who experience physical abuse and sexual abuse in need of adoption should be provided for moving the foster children into permanency.

• 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.