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Paper

Evaluating a group support program for kinship foster families: evidence on how to enhance resilience

abstract

Family resilience can be understood as a functional characteristic of a family to face up to adversity, to emerge stronger and to move forward in healthy cohesion (Walsh 2002). But also, family resilience can be understood as a protective factor in childhood if the family is able to provide a secure environment that allows for the development of each member of the family.

Kinship foster families have a distinct trait: they have gone through difficult situations, traumatic at times; they look after a grandchild or nephew because parents can't provide these children with adequate care and education. Therefore, these families face a double challenge: accepting the parents' difficult situation and accepting the new child within the foster family structure, this latter challenge entails bringing up and caring for an unwanted and unplanned child. We call family resilience the ability an extended foster family has to adapt to this new scenario and to efficiently develop this new role as foster carers.

Establishing this premise, the research group Grisij from University of Barcelona and University of Lleida analyzed the resilience of kinship foster families and we have endeavoured to identify developments in the resilience mechanisms that are generated by the «Kinship foster family support programme (Kffsp)» (developed by Grisij in a previous Action research project, see Amorós, Fuentes-Peláez, Molina, & Pastor 2010). In other words, the research tries to demonstrate evidence of the impact the program has had in promoting family resilience[1].

The Kinship foster family support program (Kffsp). The program is an educational one which aims to enhance the family kinship foster care development, the parental development and social support networks in order to facilitate foster children's adaptation and harmony in the host family. It is aimed at kinship foster families with teenagers in their care (Amorós et al. 2005).

The program promotes an educational experience based on a tridimensional model which aims at working on attitudes (abilities to face the educational aspect of fostering), on emotions (how to identify and manage emotions and empathy) and on cognitive aspects (acquiring knowledge on the fostering process) (Amorós, Fuentes, Pastor, Lozano, Comellas, & Molina 2008). This educational experience is carried out in a group context and two professionals from child protection are in charge of the program.

A brief outline of the program itself can help understand the results in context. The program was made up of 9 sessions, two of which were double sessions. Kinship foster families took part in a total of 11 sessions of two and a half hours each. These sessions took place every two or three weeks.

 

Introductory session

Foster families: let's introduce ourselves

Session 1

Kinship foster care: different aspects

Session 2

Different roles

Sessions 3a & 3b

Development: the changes and their consequences

Session 4

Relationship with biological parents: visits

Session 5

Different educational styles

Sessions 6a & 6b

Managing conflict positively

Session 7

Preventing high-risk behaviour

Session 8

Support for carers

Session 9

Bonds with the community and use of resources

 

The titles of the sessions indicate the areas we covered, namely the different aspects of foster family resilience, as help for families to identify the needs of foster children, adequate their response to the needs of foster children as well as to solve conflicts, enhance family communication (intra-familiar and inter-families) and learn how to increase formal support and strengthen their informal support network.

The research method. The research methodology is best described as participatory cooperative action research. The research process itself becomes a powerful tool enabling us to observe how the process evolves in practice, and the positive results. Evidently this process would not be possible without the commitment of the care workers who have been and continue to carry out the educational process. Their active involvement in the research process is a fundamental part of the evolving process as they gain awareness about what changes and improvements are necessary as the investigation proceeds.

We gathered information about kinship foster family resilience from families and professionals using a combination of methods to assess the changes produced by the program. We gathered quantitative data through questionnaires (Ceifex and Cesfex) purposely designed for the research and qualitative data through informal interviews and discussion groups.

Data collection was done in three key periods within the timeframe: a) the first phase, before the program was underway (pre-evaluation); b) the second phase, upon completion of the program (post-evaluation); and c) the deferred evaluation which was a follow up approximately 6 months after completion of the program. The data was analyzed by the SPSS and the Atlas.ti.

In total, 62 families participated from 4 regions of Spain (Catalonia, Murcia, Galicia and Mallorca).

Following the main theoretical constructs relating to family resilience, we analyzed the following aspects: 1) Family Development, 2) Parental Development, 3) Formal support, and 4) Informal support.

Findings. The results indicate that the educational program is capable of generating change and that the most significant developments occur in parental development and in formal support.

Referring to parental development, the most common parenting styles are the authoritative and permissive styles. In parental development there is a marked increase in communication amongst the family and the use of democratic style (an increase in communication, affection, control and matching expectations to the child's capabilities and age), while there was a decrease in permissive and authoritarian parenting styles. So, the most important steps in parental development (after participating in the Kffsp) are:

  • learning communication strategies;
  • how to set limits and rules to establish certain levels of control;
  • understanding the needs of child development and how to respond to them.

These allow kinship foster families who already have a high degree of affection and attachment towards the fostered child, to improve their capabilities (skills) to set the rules and proper limits in an authoritative style.

In terms of formal support, families increase their knowledge about what support is available and this transformed their relationship with child protection teams, altering their perception of the relationship from one of control to one of support.

Their perception of formal support improved considerably because they have a better understanding of formal support and how to use it. They are able to ask for help when they need it and to seek support regularly.

So, on completion of the program, families felt empowered to approach these formal support networks to make positive progress.

Although informal support is the area which changed the least as a result of the program, the families valued the Kffsp (a formal support element) as a source of informal support. Families who had an inadequate level of informal support found the program offered them the informal support they lacked; group learning sessions acted as a forum for informal support amongst the participants.

Conclusions. The results of this research present implications for good practice as it demonstrates that kinship foster families can enhance their resilience when offered opportunities for family education in a group. Participation in the program has specifically strengthened key factors in resilience such as the increase in communicative skills and the strengthening of the social support net.

However, we have also identified a series of improvements strongly connected to the program's own methodology, such as the closer connections to professionals and the better understanding of their role. The Kffsp introduced an intervention which aims to highlight the potential strengths of families rather than focusing on their shortcomings (Amorós, Pastor, Balsells, Fuentes, Molina, & Mateos 2009). This positive approach of the program breaks down barriers between professional care workers and families, and improves relations between them.

Support group methodology encourages changes in professional performance which, contemporarily, permit to identify families' potential by combining group and individual support. When these circumstances occur, we can confirm that kinship foster families strengthen their resilience and hence feel more prepared to face fostering as well as making this find of care a good resource to protect and promote fostered children's development.

References

Amorós, P., Fuentes, N., Pastor, C., Lozano, P., Comellas, MªJ. and Molina, MªC. (2008). Les besoins de soutien socio-éducatif des familles dans le cadre du placement dans un milieu familial élargi. La revue internationale de l'éducation famililale, 23, 143-156.

Amorós, P., Fuentes-Peláez, N., Molina, MªC. and Pastor, C. (2010). Le soutien aux familles et aux adolescents bénéficiant d'une action centrée sur la promotion de la résilience. Bulletin de Psychologie, vol 63, 510, 429-434.

Amorós, P., Palacios, J., Jiménez, J., Molina, MªC., Pastor, C., Cirera, L., Martín, D., Comellas, M.J., Fuentes, N., Lozano, P., Mateo, M., del Pino, A., Pastor, A., Ramon, A., Balsells, MªA., Naranjo, C., Roldán, R., Rueda, R. and Sánchez, E. (2005). Programa para la formación de acogedores en familia extensa. Barcelona: Fundació «la Caixa».

Amorós, P., Pastor, C., Balsells, M.A., Fuentes, N., Molina, MªC. and Mateos, A. (2009). Programme de formation pour familles d'accueil. Impact sur la qualité des enfants et la résilience familiale. In N. Nader-Grosbois. Resilience, regulation and quality of life. Louvain: UCL Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 187-192.

Walsh, F. (2002). A Family Resilience Framework: Innovative Practice Applications. Family Relations, 51, 130-137.

 


[1] Acknowledgements: Ministry of Education and Science (Ref.: EDU2008-00340/EDUC) and Agency for Management of University and Research Grants of Government of Catalonia (Ref.: SGR 2009:1392).

 

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