[Parenting stress in long‐term foster carers: A longitudinal study]

Abstract

BackgroundChildren in foster care tend to exhibit adverse psychosocial functioning, and foster parents tend to experience high levels of stress related to their role as carers.MethodsThe study included 60 foster children and 42 children living in biological families as a comparison group. Caregiver stress was measured using the Parenting Stress Index, while child problem behavior was measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Children and their primary carer were assessed when the children were 2, 3, and 8 years, respectively.ResultsThe results showed higher stress scores for foster parents at all time points, with the difference being most pronounced in stress related to the child. Problem behavior was also higher for foster children at age 8 years. Foster parent stress increased in all domains during the course of the study. Child domain stress was the only significant predictor of child problem behavior.ConclusionFoster parents are overall more stressed than biological parents, with stress levels increasing over time. Foster children have more behavior problems, and these problems are closely related to their carers' child‐related stress. Further implications for the reduction of parenting stress are discussed.

Examining the Impact of COVID-19 on Parental Stress: A Study of Foster Parents

“…Although researchers have generally reported little evidence that foster parent stress has a negative reciprocal effect on foster child well-being (Goemans et al, 2015), there are relatively few studies that clearly explicate or even explore the impact of foster parent stress on the caregiver, child, or family system (Bergsund et al, 2019). However, multiple recent reports have found that foster parents report generally high levels of stress, outside of a crisis or emergency situation (e.g., Havik et al, 2016;Megahead & Deater-Deckard, 2017), and some report higher levels of parental stress than biological parents in a natal family context (Bergsund et al, 2019). One thing does seem clear: foster care presents unique parenting circumstances, and whether the associated stress seems manageable or not, it is often present and must be coped with in some way (Adams et al, 2018;Cooley et al, 2017).…”

A Systematic Review on Foster Parents’ Psychological Adjustment and Parenting Style—An Evaluation of Foster Parents and Foster Children Variables

“…The included studies were conducted between 2011 and 2020 and comprised a total of N = 1794 non-relative foster parents, whose ages ranged between 30 and 67 years; n = 2 studies did not report foster parents' age [55,56]. Of all the included studies, n = 9 included foster mothers [57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65] while n = 5 [66][67][68][69][70] showed a more homogeneous gender distribution among foster parents; n = 2 studies [55,56] did not report information on foster parents' gender distribution. As shown in Table 1, foster parents were mostly married, albeit n = 6 studies [55,56,62,64,68,69] did not report information on foster parents' marital status.…”

“…Around half of the studies [55][56][57]59,60,[66][67][68][69] provided information on foster children, showing quite a homogenous gender distribution. Foster children were aged 23 months (i.e., almost 2 years) to 17.8 years.…”

“…In two studies only [66,67], children were over 10 years of age. The duration of fostering was only reported in n = 8 studies [55][56][57]59,60,[66][67][68] and ranged from 78.27 days (i.e., around 2 and a half months) to 87.3 months (i.e., over 7 years). Furthermore, n = 8 studies [55][56][57]59,60,66,68,69] investigated the effect of foster children's psychosocial variables on either foster parents' parenting stress or parental style, specifically focusing on children internalizing and externalizing problems.…”

“…The duration of fostering was only reported in n = 8 studies [55][56][57]59,60,[66][67][68] and ranged from 78.27 days (i.e., around 2 and a half months) to 87.3 months (i.e., over 7 years). Furthermore, n = 8 studies [55][56][57]59,60,66,68,69] investigated the effect of foster children's psychosocial variables on either foster parents' parenting stress or parental style, specifically focusing on children internalizing and externalizing problems. In this regard, as reported in Table 2, n = 13 studies investigated parenting stress, n = 1 investigated foster parents' distress referring to anxiety and depression symptoms and n = 2 explored parenting style.…”