Senses of belonging when living in foster care families: Insights from children’s video diaries

Bengtsson, Tea Torbenfeldt; Luckow, Stine Tankred

doi:10.1177/0907568219881667

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Instead it is how we ascribe meaning to, interpret and enact family relationships that dynamically form our notion of family (Morgan, 2011). Research has shown that children in care actively do family relationships across family settings and their relationships with for instance foster carers depend on the meanings they ascribe hereto (Bengtsson & Luckow, in press; Biehal, 2014; Boddy, 2018). When this article engages with talking about ‘foster care families’ and the relationships in this setting as ‘family relationships’, it is not to disregard how ‘family relationships’ very much depend on the quality and the meaning that are ascribed to them.…”

Section: Everyday Practices In Foster Care Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intimacy among relative strangers: Practices of touch and bodily care in new foster care relationships

Luckow

2019

The Sociological Review

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When children move into a new foster care family, they and the foster carers are initially strangers to one another. Without knowing one another’s history, experiences and practices, foster carers and children are expected to get settled quite quickly in the intimate setting that makes up family life. In these early days of a new placement, bodily intimacy is brought to the forefront; how the foster carers manage bodily care and go about touch without any ‘embodied knowledge’ of the child. This study draws on in-depth interviews with eight foster care couples and explores how foster carers construct practices around bodily care and touch in new foster care relationships. Findings of the study showed that in some cases (babies) the foster carers felt it was ‘natural’ and relatively straightforward to care for the child in an intimate and bodily sense. However, most often the foster carers experienced that either they or the children had felt discomfort, often lead by a lack of embodied knowledge and around reading and understanding one another’s bodily signals. The study emphasizes how children’s prior trajectories around negative, positive or absent touch are imperative for the dynamics of bodily care practices in new foster care relationships. Children may express their embodied experiences very differently, and foster carers, also having embodied biographies, can enact bodily practices in a more or less negotiable manner, adjusted to the child.

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Section: Everyday Practices In Foster Care Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intimacy among relative strangers: Practices of touch and bodily care in new foster care relationships

Luckow

2019

The Sociological Review

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“…Although both non-kinship foster care and kinship foster care have been found to provide secure and stable homes (Biehal, 2019), many children also experience instability (Hedin, 2014) and uncertainty (Biehal, 2012, p. 959). Bengtsson and Luckow (2020) examined in their study 'how children living in foster care create senses of belonging ' (p. 106). According to them, the child must not just find its place in the new family, but also navigate between 'new and old family relations' (Bengtsson & Luckow, 2020, p. 107), which 'is not accomplished once and for all but is an ongoing process of feeling at home and being recognized as a rightful member of diverse family settings' (Bengtsson & Luckow, 2020, p. 116).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bengtsson and Luckow (2020) examined in their study ‘how children living in foster care create senses of belonging’ (p. 106). According to them, the child must not just find its place in the new family, but also navigate between ‘new and old family relations’ (Bengtsson & Luckow, 2020, p. 107), which ‘is not accomplished once and for all but is an ongoing process of feeling at home and being recognized as a rightful member of diverse family settings’ (Bengtsson & Luckow, 2020, p. 116). To further a sense of belonging and for the well‐being of the child, Hedin (2014) underlines the importance of being included in everyday family life activities and of ‘a family that is willing to let the foster youth into the activities and rituals of everyday life and is open to cooperating with the adolescent's birth family’ as well (p. 173).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The child's place in the foster family: Use of conventional names and adoption intentions throughout childhood

Kaiser

Mabille

Thørnblad

et al. 2023

Child & Family Social Work

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This longitudinal study examines the child's place in the foster family through the use of conventional names for familial figures (e.g., ‘mum/dad’) and through the foster parents' intention to adopt the child. Data were collected at two time points during childhood and adolescence, among children placed in kinship and non‐kinship foster care in Norway. Children placed at a younger age and children in non‐kinship foster care were more likely to call their foster parents for ‘mum/dad’. Children placed at an older age and children in non‐kinship care were more often presented as ‘foster child’ by their foster parents. Only 25%–34% of foster parents reported having considered adoption. The most common reason for not considering adoption was that they already deemed to be a family. The use of conventional names for familial figures in foster families might not necessarily reflect the child's integration into a foster family as it seems to be related to the age of the child at placement rather than to the duration of placement. Intention to adopt was relatively low, mostly because foster parents considered adoption as not necessary.

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“…Previous research on the social relationships involved in foster care has tended to focus on children living in foster care and their perception of their dual family relationships (Bengtsson and Luckow, 2019; Biehal, 2014; Christiansen et al, 2013; Holland and Crowley, 2013; Pithouse and Rees, 2015; Sen and Broadhurst, 2011; Sinclair et al, 2000). Among many other findings, this research describes the importance of contact between children in foster care and their birth parents, also showing how the frequency and regularity of contacts, and professional support for these contacts, affect how the relationship develops (Biehal, 2014; Sen and Broadhurst, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociological Ambivalence: Relationships between Birth Parents and Foster Parents

Järvinen

Luckow

2020

Sociology

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Inspired by Merton and Barber’s sociological theory on ambivalence, this article analyses ‘co-parenting’ between foster parents and birth parents as prototypes of ambivalent relationships; that is, relationships based on incompatible role requirements. This incompatibility is rooted in the conflicts between (a) the professional role of foster carers and their emotional involvement in the child in their care, and (b) the status of birth parents as ‘failed parents’ (from the perspective of the authorities) and their continuous aspirations to get their child home again. The article is based on qualitative interviews with foster parents and birth parents of children in foster care in Denmark. We show how the structural ambivalence is associated with difficulties, for both foster parents and birth parents, in translating the principle of ‘the best interest of the child’ into concrete practice in out-of-home placements.

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Senses of belonging when living in foster care families: Insights from children’s video diaries

Cited by 12 publications

References 31 publications

Intimacy among relative strangers: Practices of touch and bodily care in new foster care relationships

Intimacy among relative strangers: Practices of touch and bodily care in new foster care relationships

The child's place in the foster family: Use of conventional names and adoption intentions throughout childhood

Sociological Ambivalence: Relationships between Birth Parents and Foster Parents

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