Understanding Foster Parents' Motivation to Continue Fostering

Background: Foster parents care for almost half of the children placed in out-of-home care (DHHS, 2014 AFCARS) and are integral to the child welfare system. They provide homes for children who have been abused and neglected and act as the child’s advocate (Cooley & Petren, 2011). There is consistent need to retain existing foster homes to provide safe and stable homes for children (Whenan, Oxlad & Lushinton, 2009). Foster parents report many internal rewards they gain from fostering, however fostering is also a stressful role and can be trying (Wilson, Sinclair, & Gibbs, 2000). Understanding the motivation that empowers foster parents to continue to open their homes despite the personal and systemic challenges they face is essential. 

Methods: Approximately one quarter of all licensed foster parents in the state where the study was conducted responded to a survey either online or by mail (N= 1095) responding to both scaled and open-ended questions surrounding their level of satisfaction with fostering, including their motivation to foster. Open-ended responses were analyzed using open coding and themes were established through identifying meaning units in the text. Responses to the open ended questions were triangulated with the quantitative responses regarding foster parents motivations to start and continue fostering to provide for a greater understanding.

Findings: The survey found that 24% of foster parents reported that their motivation to start fostering was due to a calling. Foster parents elaborated on the calling to foster in the qualitative responses. Adoption was the most common calling for initial motivation the participants identified. Foster parents reported the desire to adopt due to infertility, wanting to have a sibling for other children in the family and the desire for a large family. The second most common motivation for becoming licensed stemmed from first being a kinship placement.

The  survey found that 14% of respondents reported becoming licensed because of the need for foster homes. The open-ended questions provided detail to support this finding. For example, foster parents reported that they were motivated to continue fostering to meet the needs of the children. This included giving back to the community and to make a difference. Respondents reported that they wanted to provide safe and stable homes for children, and that children deserved to be cared for.

The survey found that 14% of participants indicated that they were motivated to start and continue fostering after realizing the need through personal experience. These personal experiences, as described in the open-ended responses, ranged from having a family or friend that fostered, growing up in a home that had foster children, being a foster or adopted child themselves, or personally knowing a child who needed a placement.

Conclusions and Implications: The need to provide safe and stable homes to the growing number of children in out-of-home care is vital. Understanding the motivation to start and continue fostering has implications for both recruitment and retention of foster parents. Deliberate targeted retention and recruitment efforts are more effective and fiscally efficient.