Family types and social integration in kinship foster care

Amy Holtan

Children and Youth Services Review, 2008, vol. 30, issue 9, 1022-1036

Abstract: Objective The aim of this article is to address the complexity of relationships in kinship foster care and explore the social integration of foster children. The article analyzes the meaning of family and parenting from the perspectives of the child, the foster parents, and the biological parents.Method The study is based on qualitative methodological design supplemented by a quantitative study of long-term kinship foster care in Norway. This article draws mainly on interview data from children aged 9-12 (N = 17) placed in long-term kinship care, biological parents (N = 14), and foster parents (N = 47), representing a total of 29 placements. The methodological approach partly employs the principles of Grounded Theory, combined with abductive strategies, family and kinship theories.Findings Based on three criteria derived from the analysis of the interviews-power, understanding of the assignment, and solidarity-I have developed a typology of negotiated relationships among kinship caregivers, biological parents, and foster children. These are archetypal constructions whose purpose is to illustrate the internal variation of family understanding in kinship foster home undertakings. The article clarifies the criteria for constructing the types of family and discusses the social integration of kinship foster children on their basis.

Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190-7409(08)00011-X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:30:y:2008:i:9:p:1022-1036

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().