PARENTAL VISITING IN FOSTER FAMILIES - TH E DYNAMICS OF RELATIONSHIPSIN THE FOSTER PARENTS, FOSTER-CHILD, BIOLOGICAL PARENTS TRIAD - AN EMPIRICAL-STUDY

Whether foster families should be regarded more as a replacement or a supplement to the biological family and whether parental visits to fos ter families should be supported or rejected are controversial topics. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the influenc e of parental visiting on the extended foster family. Fifty-one foster families with current or terminated patterns of parental visiting or who never had visiting arrangements are compared. The results indicate that the continuation of an attachment between the foster child and i ts biological parents is only possible in the case of continuing-visit s. In contrast, most of the foster parents understand the foster famil y as a quasi-biological family and view continued contacts as an addit ional chronic stress factor. Breaking off contacts reduce the foster c hild's chance of relating to its origins. The results lead to some sel ection criteria for foster families if visits are intended. The author s argue that every decision for or against visiting arrangements shoul d be the result of an analysis of each individual case, taking into ac count the interests of all participants: foster child, foster parents and biological parents.