Parenting stress and parenting behavior among foster mothers of foster children with externalizing problems

Femke Vanschoonlandt, Johan Vanderfaeillie, Frank Van Holen, Skrällan De Maeyer and Marijke Robberechts

Children and Youth Services Review, 2013, vol. 35, issue 10, 1742-1750

Abstract: Foster children often have externalizing problems. Since foster parents are selected and trained, they are often expected to be able to handle the externalizing problems of these children. Very little is, however, known about foster parents' parenting stress and parenting behavior in the context of challenging foster caregiving. In this study, the parenting stress and parenting behavior of 39 foster mothers of recently placed foster children with externalizing problems were studied. By using standardized measures with normative data, foster mothers' scores on different parenting stress and parenting behavior subscales were compared to published norms. Foster mothers of children with externalizing problems experienced more parenting stress than the norm group. The parenting context, provided by these foster mothers, was similar to the parenting context provided by the norm group. The prevalence of specific dysfunctional parenting behaviors (e.g., less involvement in positive parenting) was small to moderate, but nearly half of the foster mothers could be classified as making dysfunctional adaptations to their parenting environment. Moreover, only the minority of foster mothers provided an adaptive parenting context (e.g., more than average involvement in positive parenting). The implications of these results for pre-service training and on-going support for foster parents are discussed.

Keywords: Foster care; Externalizing problems; Parenting behavior; Parenting stress; Foster parent training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:35:y:2013:i:10:p:1742-1750

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.07.012

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