Ser família de acolhimento de crianças em Portugal: motivações e experiências

Foster care is an almost absent component of the child care system in Portugal. Despite to be a legal response to child maltreatment, foster care only corresponds to 3,5 % of children in out-of-home care (CASA Report, 2015), representing the residential care 85,1%. The invisibility of foster care is a characteristic also observed in the Portuguese scientific community (Delgado, 2007). The present research contributes to a deeper visibility of foster care in Portugal, aiming to give voice to these families and understand their experiences as foster families, that is, their motivations and expectations and the needs and impacts on personal and family dynamics. The research questions are: i.) Why and how they become foster families? ii) What is their experience as foster families? iii) what can we learn from the foster families’ experiences to improve the child care and protection system in Portugal and the social workers’ performance? The research adopted a qualitative approach and the research design included narrative interviews with foster families, focused interviews with professional teams responsible by the recruiting, training and accompanying of the families, and case files analyses. The sample was intentional, attending the criterion of maximum variation, covering 10 foster families (FF), with two different supervision organizations. The qualitative data analysis adopted a Ground Theory orientation in is constructivist stand and was inspired by Charmaz (2006 and 2014) works. Foster families’ motivation is rooted in altruistic values and supported by affection for children and sensitivity to child maltreatment. These factors, but also the family and professional biography and the personal or indirect contact with out-of-home responses produce a predisposition to become foster family. The family resilience to host children with traumatic experiences and disruptive behaviours, the quality of social services support, supervision, as well as the link with the fostered children after they leave the FF, contribute to the renewal of the disposition to continue to be foster family. The FF experience is traversed by challenges and rewards. For the interviewed families to be foster family is a rewarding experience considering the recognition of the children, of the community, family, kinship and social services. The positive experience of foster families covered by this piece of research constitutes evidence to support the positive benefits for the Portuguese child welfare system to enlarge foster care as a response to child protection. The quality of social services and the performance of social workers is a key element for a successful experience. This study is a contribute for the child welfare public policy and for professional intervention.