Perceptions of Family: Complexities Introduced by Foster Care Part 1: Childhood Perspectives⋆

Abstract

This article is the first of two drawn from the same study and describes two sets of data on perceptions of family: (a) those held by 43 children who were in long-term family foster care at the time of the study, and (b) retrospective recollections of perceptions of childhood family held by 39 adults who had been in foster care as children. Children completed a representation of current and ideal family using the Kvebaek Family Sculpture Technique (KFST). The adults provided a representation of childhood, current, and ideal family, and information following an indepth interview. Comments by the participants show that relationships were complex and options need to be kept open to enable children in foster care to maximise opportunities for connection with either foster or biological family. The fact that the two data sets were shown to be remarkably similar, both quantitatively and qualitatively, strengthens the credibility of the representation of childhood by the adults, despite its retrospective nature.

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