Vaikų globos šeimose ypatumai

Abstract

The article analyzes the peculiarities of families of foster children and their foster parents. The greatest attention is focused on the following aspects: how many foster children one family can foster, if there is some family kinship with the foster child, what motivates families to take care of the child, what difficulties families are faced with when fostering a child, what social support is provided to foster parents families, where foster parents seek help for issues concerning the children in their care, what lack of social support is. The method of written inquiry (the instrument—a questionnaire) was used. 173 fosterparents of the different regions of Lithuania participated in the research. The research took place in 2009. The research results have revealed that the majority of foster parents families’ care for one child. In addition, families tend to take care of children who are 5-11 years old and children without disabilities. The majority of caregivers have close family ties with foster children. The main motive of foster parents, who are the relatives of a foster child, is the responsibility to support the family. The motives of foster
parents who are not relatives are based on a wider range of reasons, i.e. the desire to help the child to grow up in the family; they don’t have their own children or their own children have left the parental home; the desire to realize oneself; to do socially useful work and so on. Caregivers face difficulties such as: the lack of psychological and pedagogical knowledge which is necessary for educating and psychological and behavioral problems of the foster child. Foster parents are faced with the lack of financial support, training and advice of professionals.