Foster parenting in Singapore : what influences their satisfaction to continue fostering?

• Main Author: Lee, Ming Hong
• Other Authors: Joyce Pang Shu Min
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73911
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

With more vulnerable and behaviourally challenging children entering the foster system, there is a need to recruit and retain foster parents to cope with this emerging trend. Past studies in foster care revealed a variety of reasons that led to foster placement disruptions, foster parents attrition, and intention to continue. Yet there is limited research on foster parents’ satisfaction, which strongly predicts intention to continue. Thus this study aims to examine what factors relate to foster parents’ satisfaction and provide implications to enhance it. An archival dataset involving 89 pairs of Singaporean foster parents was utilized. Participants provided responses to the foster child’s difficult behaviours, relationship with foster child, self-efficacy in handling difficult behaviours, fostering training, and overall satisfaction with fostering. Results revealed that foster parenting satisfaction is related to foster parents’ self-efficacy in handling their child, relationship between foster child and parent, and foster parents’ perception of training quality. Moreover, both self-efficacy and relationship with foster child mediates the link between foster child’s challenging behaviours and satisfaction with fostering. Practical implications and limitations were discussed to provide strategies for enhancing satisfaction in fostering and future directions for research.