Research on Kinship and Non-Kinship Foster Families

Med študijem na Fakulteti za socialno delo v Ljubljani sem tekom prakse spoznala tudi področje rejništva. Imela sem možnost sodelovati z rejniško družino, v kateri je rejnica bila hkrati otrokova sorodnica. Kot vsaka druga družina se je tudi ta soočala z raznimi izzivi. Ob sodelovanju z družino sem velikokrat razmišljala o vplivu sorodstvenih vezi na dogajanje v družini. Spraševala sem se, s kakšnimi izzivi se soočajo rejnice, ki niso otrokove sorodnice. Od tu tudi zanimanje in radovednost o tem, kakšne so razlike v izvajanju sorodstvenega in nesorodstvenega rejništva. V diplomskem delu raziskujem o poteku prihoda otroka v rejništvo, o občutkih, s katerimi so se rejnice ob začetku rejništva soočale, o odnosih v družini, o soočanju rejnic z izzivi odraščanja otrok, o odnosih rejniške in matične družine otroka in navsezadnje tudi o pomoči in podpori, ki jih rejnice potrebujejo za izvajanje rejniške dejavnosti. V teoretičnem delu so zajete teme rejništva in družine, odraščanja v rejniški družini, socialnega dela z družino v rejništvu in tema sorodstvenih in nesorodstvenih rejniških družin. V empiričnem delu predstavim metodologijo izvedene raziskave. Nato predstavim še rezultate, pridobljene s fokusno skupino in delno standardiziranim intervjujem. V obeh metodah je skupaj sodelovalo sedem rejnic, tri, ki so otrokove sorodnice, in štiri, ki niso otrokove sorodnice. Rezultati so pokazali, da so rejnice, ki izvajajo sorodstveno rejništvo, starejše od tistih, ki izvajajo nesorodstveno rejništvo. Sorodstvena vez vpliva na odnose v rejniški družini sami, kot tudi na odnose med rejniško in matično družino otroka. Izkazalo se je, da je izzivov, s katerimi se rejnice pri izvajanju rejništva soočajo, kot izzivov, s katerimi se soočajo otroci v rejništvu, veliko. Bistvenih razlik v izzivih med sorodstvenimi in nesorodstvenimi rejniškimi družinami ni. Navsezadnje pa so rezultati pokazali, da imajo rejnice še veliko potreb, na katere trenutni rejniški sistem ne odgovarja.During my internship that I completed as part of my studies at Faculty of Social Work in Ljubljana, I learned about foster care. I had the opportunity to work with a foster family where the foster mother was the child’s relative. Like any other family, this one also faced various challenges. When working with the family, I often thought about the impact of family ties on what was going on in the family. I wondered what challenges foster mothers, who are not the child’s relatives, face. This sparked the interest and curiosity about the differences in implementation of kinship and non-kinship foster care. In my dissertation, I am researching the course of the child’s arrival in foster care, the feelings that foster mothers faced at the beginning of foster care, family relationships, the challenges foster parents face while their foster child is growing up, relations between foster parents and a child’s biological family and, finally, the help and support needed by foster carers to carry out foster care activities. The theoretical part covers the topics of foster care and family, growing up in a foster family, social work with a foster family, and the topic of kinship and non-kinship foster families. In the empirical part, I present the methodology of the conducted research. I then present the results obtained with a focus group and a partially standardized interview. A total of seven foster mothers participated in both methods, three of which are the child’s relatives and four who are not. The results showed that foster mothers who provide kinship foster care are older than those who provide non-kinship foster care. The kinship affects the relationships in the foster family itself, as well as the relationship between the foster family and the child’s biological family. It turned out that children as well as foster mothers face many challenges. There are, however, no significant differences in the challenges faced between related and unrelated foster families. Finally, the results showed that foster mothers still have many needs that are unmet by the current foster care system