High stress experienced in the foster and kin carer role: Understanding the complexities of the carer and child in context

Leith Harding, Kate Murray, Jane Shakespeare-Finch and Ron Frey

Children and Youth Services Review, 2018, vol. 95, issue C, 316-326

Abstract: With the rising numbers of children in need of out-of-home care, child protection services look to foster and kin carers to play a leading role in the lives of children unable to live with their birth families. The current study examined placement, carer, and child characteristics related to perceived foster parent stress in a sample of 158 foster and kin carers in Queensland, Australia. Carers completed a self-report online survey that assessed parenting stress, and carer perceptions of the child in their care and the child protection system. Overall, foster carers reported high stress, with 20% in the clinical range on the Parenting Stress Index (PSI-4-SF). This stress was significantly higher for those providing care for children with carer-reported high emotional and behavioural problems. Both foster carer stress and the child's emotional and behavioural challenges were significantly related to placement factors, such as, the length of time the child had been in their current placement, and the child protection court order under which the child had been placed. The findings of the study highlight the challenges to caregivers in out-of-home care and the need for individualised services, resources and supports for caregivers under stress.

Keywords: Foster carer; Kin carer; Out-of-home care; Child behaviour; Parenting stress; Placement variables; Child protection; Parenting Stress Index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740918305140
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:95:y:2018:i:c:p:316-326

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.11.004

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 ().