Abstract

SALAS MARTINEZ, María D. et al. Foster care and parent visitation. Escritos de Psicología [online]. 2009, vol.2, n.2, pp.35-42. ISSN 1989-3809.

Family foster care is a measure of protection little studied in our country. The aim of this research is to analyse the situation of children in foster care and to evaluate the quality of the visits between children with biological parents. The participants were 95 children, 72 biological families and 69 foster families. The instrument used was the "Child File Summary Form" which was designed for the study. Access to the information about the care situations was done through the Child and Family Protection Service and the associations which supervise foster care in Malaga. The results show: a) the presence of maltreatment in all the children and previous residential care in the majority of children; b) great incidence of biological parents with problems of substance abuse; c) a low percentage of foster care is remunerated and few contacts are observed between foster and biological parents; d) parental visits are infrequent and sporadic; e) many contacts are evaluated negatively by the technical staff.

Keywords : Foster care; foster parents; foster families; parent visitation.

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