http://isw.sagepub.com/International Social Work

http://isw.sagepub.com/content/39/3/329The online version of this article can be found at:

 DOI: 10.1177/002087289603900309

1996 39: 329International Social WorkArie Rimmerman and Ilana Duvdevany

motivation, role perception and their view of the foster personFoster parents for persons with mental retardation in Israel:

  

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Foster parents for persons with mentalretardation in Israel: motivation, roleperception and their view of the fosterperson

Arie Rimmerman and Ilana Duvdevany

The foster home has been in use for almost 1500 years, long beforeany institutions for children came into being. Today it constitutesan alternative solution for the exceptional child, adolescent oradult, based on the assumption that it offers physical, emotionaland social support, assuming the likelihood of a normal develop-ment of the foster child (Adams, 1970). In the modern welfare state,foster homes carry important social values. On the one hand, theyprovide protection and supervision for children and adolescentswho have been rejected by their natural parents, while on the other,they enhance stability in families that are unable to cope with therole of parenthood.

Despite the benefit of foster homes, they are limited in scope andlack professional appreciation (Rimmerman et al.,1985). There areseveral reasons for the limited use, such as public image as lessrewarding (Lakin et al., 1993), parental refusal to place the child ina competitive family, and the lack of foster families willing to serveas foster homes (Rimmerman et al., 1985).

Policy-makers are concerned about the quality and stability offoster homes for children, adolescents and young adults with men-tal retardation (Lakin et al., 1993; Rimmerman et al., 1985). Inorder to get a better understanding about these concerns it is

important to understand the foster parents’ perspective: what moti-vates them to serve as foster parents and how they perceive theirrole.

Motivation to serve as foster parents for persons with mental

Arie Rimmerman is Professor and Dean of Social Welfare and Health Studies and

liana Duvdevany is Lecturer in the School of Social Work, University of Haifa,Mount Carmel 31905, Israel.

International Social Work (SAGE, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi),Vol 39 (1996), 329-338.

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retardation falls into two main categories, intrinsic and extrinsic(Bruininks et al., 1982). Research on foster parents’ motivation toserve as caregivers for people with mental retardation is sparse. Thecommon explanation in the literature is that the motivation to serveas a foster parent is child-centered rather than self-centered (Rim-merman et al., 1985). Child-centered motivation is expressed bywillingness to continue the parental role after one’s own childrenleave home, whereas self-centered motivation is associated withmotives such as saving one’s marriage, occupation, and improvingone’s material situation. Earlier research (Hampson et al., 1978;Jenkins and Norman, 1975) shows a preference toward child-related motivation and that this is associated with a degree ofpositive performance in the foster home.The role of foster parent is a complex one, and it appears that the

present structure of the fostering services carries within itself theseeds of role conflict and role ambiguity. Lack of clear distributionof tasks, lack of clear delineation of range of authority and responsi-bility, and the resultant lack of unity and agreement as to the roledefinition affects the capability of a foster parent to perform therole in the best way (Galaway, 1980). In the absence of clear roledefinition, there is no distinction between the role of foster parentand that of natural parent (Wolins, 1963). It is quite clear that fosterparents’ daily practice is affected by the way they conceive theirrole. Lakin et al. (1993) raised another question related to fosterparents’ role. Would foster parents view their role as providers ofservice similar to residential facilities? Or would they view theirrole as natural parents in their own homes?The research evidence is far from being clear about what the

foster parent role model should be, parental or ’the compliancerole’ (Van-Hook, 1987). Should the role be identical to that of thenatural parent, or should it be a care worker who has to comply withinstructions and keep away from the parental role (Conard, 1985)?It seems that over 50 percent of foster parents view their role ascloser to the natural parents (Van-Hook, 1987). Nevertheless, theresearch associating role perception and outcome or performanceis limited in scope.The present study was designed to examine two questions: (1)

What motivates individuals to choose the role of foster parents fora person with mental retardation, and how do they perceive theirrole? and (2) How are foster parents’ motivation and role percep-tion related to their view of foster persons in terms of advancement,

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level of functioning and quality of contact? These questions areimportant for the re-examination of current policy toward fostercare providers for individuals with developmental disabilities.

Study variablesThe measures of foster parents’ motivation and role perception,and their perception of foster children’s advancement and qualityof contact, are frequently used in foster care studies (Rimmermanet al., 1985; Fanshel, 1966). These measures were translated intoHebrew by bilingual social work researchers. The internal reliabil-ity of these measures was calculated by Cronbach’s alpha statistic(1951) and is reported in parentheses where appropriate.

MotivationFoster parents’ motivation was measured by the Foster FamilyAppraisal Scale (FFAS) designed by Fanshel (1966) for the ChildWelfare Research Project at Columbia University. This question-naire covers 16 motives, six related to child-centered and 10 relatedto self-centered motives for being a foster parent. Sample items are:’being a foster mother gives me a sense of motherhood,’ or ’I enjoythe fact that I am contributing to my family income.’ There arethree possible options for each item: agree, disagree and do notknow. A factor analysis (n = 68) derived two factors: child-centered motives (items range between .79 to .82) and self-centeredmotives (items range between .81 and .84).

Role perceptionFoster parent role perception was measured by the Galaway Scale(1980). This scale has 14 items divided into four categories: (a)foster parent daily decision-making (a sample item is: ’Who do youthink usually decides if foster-child can go on overnight trip?’); (b)foster parent decision-making related to educational and socialservices (a sample item is: ’Who do you think should decide on

changing to a different educational program?’); (c) foster parentdecision-making related to communication with the natural parents(a sample item is: ’Who do you think should decide when naturalparents can visit the foster child in the foster home?’); (d) fosterparent decision-making related to all issues associated with caring(a sample item is: ’Who do you think usually should decide howmuch money a foster child should receive?’). Each item has threeoptions in answer: (1) the foster parent; (2) the natural parent; (3)

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the social worker. The Cronbach alpha for internal consistency (n =45) was .92.

Advancement and contactFoster parent subjective evaluation of the foster person’s advance-ment in foster care (.88) and quality of contact with him/her (.85)was measured by two questions: ’To your knowledge, have youseen any advancement in the foster person’s functioning since hearrived in your family? (1) yes, much advancement (2) yes, moder-ate advancement (3) no advancement and (4) there is a regression’;and ’In your opinion, would you describe your contact with thefoster person as: (1) there is good contact (2) as with any child (3)there are number of problems (4) there are serious conflicts?’.

Population and designThe study comprised 130 foster mothers of persons with mentalretardation. This number represents 82.25 percent of the totalpopulation of such foster care families in the State of Israel duringJanuary 1989 to January 1990. The characteristics of the fostermothers are presented in Table 1. Most were Jewish with a meanage of 50.48 years, married, with an elementary school or partialhigh school education. Most of them classified themselves as havingmedium SES, and were traditional to observant. The foster mothershad an average of four children of their own but only two lived athome, the rest having left upon attaining maturity. Most of thefoster families had one foster person with mental retardation.The foster care persons (see Table 2) were divided almost

equally between males and females. Their mean age was 11.09years, but the dispersion was largely due to polarization of the agegroups. Most of them were described as functioning at the severelevel, had a length of stay of approximately seven years in the fostercare family, and over half received family visits. At the time of thisstudy the majority were students in special education programs.

Foster parents were interviewed by certified social workers inthree regions of the country: North, Center and Jerusalem, and theSouth of Israel. Each foster family was asked to participate in thestudy. After receiving a written confirmation from the foster par-ent, the interviewer contacted the foster family in order to set up ahome visit. Each interview was scheduled for half an hour. After

finishing the interview the questionnaire would be assigned tocoding and statistical analysis. The statistical analysis used was

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analysis of variance between parental motivation (child-centered/self-centered), role perception (parental/non-parental) and theview of the foster person (advancement and quality of contact)using the analysis of variance. This statistical analysis makes itpossible to find the effect of parental type of motivation and roleperception on perception of foster person’s advancement and qual-ity of contact.

ResultsThe first question was whether foster parents’ motivation (child-centered versus self-centered) was related to their view of the fosterperson (advancement in level of functioning and quality of contact

TABLE 1

Characteristics of foster mothers (n = 130)

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TABLE 2Characteristics of foster persons

with them). Table 3a shows that foster parents’ child-centeredmotivation was associated with their view that the foster person hadbeen advanced in level of functioning. However, no relationshipwas found between motivation of the foster parents and theirquality of contact with the foster person.

TABLE 3aMeans and standard deviations for foster mothers’ motivation and their view of the

foster person

* p < .05

The second question (Table 3b) was whether foster parents’ roleperception (parental versus non-parental) was related to their viewof the foster person (advancement in level of functioning andquality of contact with them). No relationship was found between

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the role perception of the foster parents (parental versus non-parental) and their views about the advancement in the level offunctioning of the foster persons. On the other hand, foster parentswho viewed their role as parental reported a more positive qualityof contact with the foster person.

TABLE 3bMeans and standard deviations for foster mothers’ role perception and their view of

the foster person

*p<.05

In order to assess whether demographic variables contribute tothe findings above, demographic variables were tested as covariatesbetween parental motivation, role perception and their view of thefoster child: foster mother’s age, marital status (married/not mar-ried), existence of natural children, level of education and SES.Only foster mother’s marital status (married) and formal level ofeducation (high) served as covariates in the analysis of variance ofmotivation (child-centered versus self-centered) by foster persons’advancement. This means that among foster mothers who weremarried and educated there was a significant association betweenchild-centered motivation and their view of the foster person’sadvancement.

Similar analysis was employed with the three covariates: fosterperson’s age, level of functioning (mild to severe) and length of stayin the foster family. Foster person’s level of functioning (mild)served as covariate between foster mother’s motivation (child-centered) and foster person’s level of advancement as reported bythe foster mother. In other words, foster mothers with child-

centered motivation viewed a positive advancement among fosterpersons with mild level of retardation. Furthermore, foster motherswith parental role perception viewed a positive advancement of thefoster persons in cases where his/her level of functioning was mild.

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On the other hand, foster mothers with parental role perceptionreported high quality of contact in cases where the foster personstayed within the family for a sufficient period.

DiscussionThese findings call for positive association between foster mother’schild-centered motivation and advancement of the foster person as

perceived by the foster mother. This confirmed earlier reports fromthe United States by George (1970), Jenkins and Norman (1975),and Stevens et al. (1987) that success in foster homes was related tothe type of motivation necessary to become foster parents. Theneed to challenge and achieve progress with the foster child is

probably related to internal commitment of the foster motherrather than to material rewarding.The fact that foster mothers view their quality of contact as

related to their parental role is another indication that being afoster parent is different from roles of operators in other residentialprograms for persons with mental retardation. The fact that most

persons stayed within the foster family for an average period of 7.23years explains that both partners perceived their relationship asfamily oriented and rewarded by child-centered and intrinsic grati-tude. Similar conclusions have been reached by Sherman andNewman (1988) and Tiddy (1986), who found that for many chil-dren in foster care, ’temporary stay’ means a long-term fosterfamily placement. It incorporates a philosophical commitment tothe vital role of the foster family in the child’s development.However, in a study in the United States Lakin et al. (1993)reported that foster care provided neighborhood integration, butthere were fewer expectations for their development of home andcommunity living skills compared to residents of small grouphomes. According to these researchers, foster homes have a com-mitment to provide a home rather than a training program. Inexplanation of the contradictory findings in the two studies, it is

possible that foster parents’ subjective perspective regarding out-come is quite different from any professional assessment. It is alsopossible that Israeli foster parents view their role differently fromtheir American counterparts.

ConclusionThe most important conclusion derived from the current study wasthat foster parent relationship to the foster person with mental

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retardation was dual. On the one hand, foster parent child-centeredmotivation may be translated in terms of advancement which is a

proof of accomplishment. In specific terms, the foster parent wassatisfied by the fact that the foster person progressed in his/her levelof functioning. In this respect foster parents view their relationshipwith the foster person as reciprocal, and it is assumed that eachpartner gains a great deal of personal satisfaction from the other.The other conclusion is that affective relationship is not related toachievement, as quality of contact was not related to the fosterperson’s level of retardation.These findings have implications for policy and practice. First, it

is assumed that social workers’ contact with foster mothers will bebased on internal rewards and constant contact, as is that withnatural parents. This does not mean that the tangibles are notimportant, but they should be secondary, not primary. It is recom-mended that the most desirable contact with the foster mothershould be one of partnership and sharing. Second, social welfareagencies should prefer the recruitment of married and educatedwomen for this role since these women have more stability andpotential for better advancing the foster person. Third, according tofoster mother responses, acceptance of individuals with mild men-tal retardation is recommended for this kind of setting. Fostermothers have to feel they can advance the foster person in theircharge. Fourth, there is ongoing discussion among social workers asto whether foster care should be a temporary shelter for personswith mental retardation, or a permanent arrangement. Apparentlythe foster mothers view their role as ’parent-like’ and durable, sothat they can develop a meaningful relationship with the fosterperson. Therefore, social policy should regard foster care for per-sons with mental retardation as a ’home-like’ solution, with theoption of adoption, rather than ’business-like’ and non-parental.The study presents initial findings regarding motivation and role

perception of Israeli foster parents for persons with mental retarda-tion. It is recommended that future research be cross-cultural,longitudinal and multidimensional, including additional outcomemeasures such as foster person’s quality of life, stability, well-being,involvement within the family and community at large. It is im-portant to examine the different stages in the adjustment to fostercare, and ask the following questions: What is the preferable age?How can the highest degree of compatibility between the fosterperson and the foster parent be found?

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ReferencesAdams, M. (1970) ’Foster-care for Mentally Retarded Children: How Does Child

Welfare Meet This Challenge?’, Child Welfare 49(5): 260-9.Bruininks, R.H., B.K. Hill and M.J. Tarsheim (1982) ’Deinstitutionalization and

Foster-care for Mentally Retarded People’, Health & Social Work 7(3):198-205.

Conard, K. (1985) ’Promoting Quality of Care: The Role of the ComplianceDirector’, Child Welfare 44(6): 639-49.

Cronbach, L. (1951) ’Coefficient Alpha and the Internal Structure of Tests’,Psychometrika 16(3): 297-334.

Fanshel, D. (1966) Foster Parenthood: A Role Analysis. Minneapolis University ofMinnesota Press.

Galaway, B.R. (1980) Role Consensus and Satisfaction in Foster Care Systems. AnnArbor, MI: Dissertation Abstract International (University Microfilms Inter-national 8019524).

George, V. (1970) Foster Care Theory and Practice. London: Routledge & KeganPaul.

Hampson, R.B., J.B. Tavarmina, R. Nairman and J. Kriendler (1978) ’A SpecialFoster-care Program: Reimbursement for Parents and Consultants’,Administration in Mental Health 6(2): 147-53.

Jenkms, S. and E. Norman (1975) Beyond Placement: Mothers View Foster-care.New York: Columbia University Press.

Lakin, C.K., R.H. Bruininks, T. Chen, B.K. Hill and D. Anderson (1993) ’PersonalCharacteristics and Competence of People with Mental Retardation Living inFoster Homes and Small Group Homes’, American Journal of MentalRetardation 97(6): 616-27.

Rimmerman, A., D. Portowitz and I. Duvdevany (1985) ’Foster-care for Personswith Mental Retardation in Israel and the United States: Findings and Conclu-sions’, Special Education & Rehabilitation 1(1): 40-63.

Sherman, R.S. and S.E. Newman (1988) Foster Families for Adults A CommunityAlternative in Long-term Care. New York: Columbia University Press.

Stevens, P., M. Baker, B. Knight and J. Ralph (1987) ’Local Fostering for MentallyHandicapped Children’, Adoption & Fostering 11(2): 38-47.

Tiddy, S.G. (1986) ’Creative Cooperation: Involving Biological Parents in Long-term Foster-care’, Child Welfare 44(1): 53-62.

Van-Hook, M. (1987) ’Foster Mothering Mentally Retarded Adults: A ComparativeStudy’, Adult Foster Care Journal 1(2): 97-111.

Wolins, M. (1963) Selecting Foster Parents. New York: SUNY Press.

Date accepted: October 1994