• 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 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 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 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 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.

• 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 Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.97-119
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• 2017

There has been no studies that compare services of residential care centers, group homes, and foster homes although out-of-home care services differ from each other depending on the types of out-of-home care. This study compared care satisfaction of 481 children in residential care centers, group homes, and foster homes for five years. Futhermore, factors that predict care satisfaction of the children were identified using multi-level modeling analyses. As results, this study found that care satisfaction of children in group homes was the higher than that in foster homes and residential care centers. In addition, self-esteem, social support, and types of out-of-home services were identified as significant predictors of changes in care satisfaction. Based on the study results, suggestions to help children adapt to out-of-home care and improve out-of-home care satisfaction were made.

• 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.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.279-294
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• 2024

The purpose of this study was to synthesize and interpret the findings of previous qualitative studies that investigated the lived experiences of Korean emerging adults who aged out of the foster care system. Based on our selection criteria, we extracted and analyzed 14 papers that were published between 2010 to 2023. Our meta-synthesis found that the emerging adults' life world consisted of seven domains: family experience, life tasks, education and work, financial issues, home and family, interpersonal relationships, and psychological and emotional issues. We restructured the emerging adults' lived experiences using van Manen's concepts of lived time, lived space, lived things, lived self-other, and lived body. Our meta-synthesis revealed that these emerging adults experienced multidimensional difficulties due to shortcomings of formal and informal social support after aging out of the foster care system. Their difficulties accumulated in their interaction with lived time. Based on the level of their accumulated difficulties, we categorized the emerging adults into stable, struggling, and isolated groups. However, it is important to note that many of them adapted to their own life world and strived to move forward. This qualitative meta-synthesis provides a comprehensive understanding and new interpretation of emerging adults who transition from foster care to independent living in the context of Korea.

• 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.