The experiences, challenges and coping strategies of foster parents raising teenage foster children

Abstract

Globally, there is an estimated high population of teenage children who grow up in foster care. In South Africa, these children are legally placed in foster care by the commissioner of the children`s court inquiry in terms of Section 156 of the Children`s Act 38 of 2005. However, in South Africa and beyond, foster care is just one of the options that are available to care for and protect teenage children in need. Teenage children that are admitted for foster care exhibit various behaviours that originate from their family of origin. This tends to pose challenges to foster parents who, resultantly, may face various difficulties to raise their teenage foster children. The primary goal of the current study was to develop an in-depth understanding of challenges, experiences, and coping strategies of foster parents in raising teenage foster children. This qualitative study explored, described, and contextualised challenges that are faced by teenage children’s foster parents. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling, which is designed to access participants who have lived experiences and highly likely rich data. The data saturation was reached with fourteen (14) participants. Semi-structured interview questions that were collated into an interview guide were used for data collection. The data was analysed using Tesch’s eight steps. Furthermore, to ensure trustworthiness, Guba’s data verification model of credibility, dependability, conformability, and transferability, was used. The study followed appropriate research ethical procedures. The study’s findings suggest that teenage children’s foster parents face various challenges in raising them. The challenges include teenage foster children back chatting their parents, coming home late at night, abusing substances, and demanding expensive clothes. However, foster parents reported various coping strategies that they adopted to survive the challenges that they faced. The study recommends that teenage children’s foster parents must receive ongoing support to enhance their coping strategies. The support may include the development of support groups, ongoing foster care supervision, and counselling for foster parents.