Child of two worlds: How foster care workers perceive their skills in dealing with worldview differences in foster care

Danielle van de Koot-Dees; Martine Noordegraaf; Bernhard Reitsma

doi:10.1111/cfs.13037

Child of two worlds: How foster care workers perceive their skills in dealing with worldview differences in foster care

Danielle van de Koot-Dees^*, Martine Noordegraaf, Bernhard Reitsma

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Foster children often encounter worldview differences between their foster family and their birth family, for example, when participating in religious activities and practices. Foster children not only have a right to continuity in upbringing but also consistency in worldview, culture and language. Good co-parenting relationships are important for their identity development. For these reasons, foster care workers are entrusted with the task of supporting the triadic relationship of the foster child, birth parents and foster parents in dealing with worldview differences. Based on in-depth interviews with foster care workers (n = 16) six skills in dealing with worldview differences can be distinguished: (1) basic knowledge of worldviews and identity formation; (2) empathizing with the other; (3) inquisitiveness to discover what is essential for the other; (4) initiating worldview conversations and keeping them going; (5) fostering self-reflection in worldview; and (6) manoeuvring between and monitoring all interests. It is helpful if birth parents are well-informed in advance about the impact of worldview differences and if foster care workers and foster parents are aware of the identity and developmental needs of foster children to explore the worldview of the foster family and the birth family.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1191-1202
Number of pages	12
Journal	Child and Family Social Work
Volume	28
Issue number	4
Early online date	19 May 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.13037
Publication status	Published - Nov 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was partly funded by SIA (NWO), the Netherlands. This organization will not derive any benefit from the research results. The authors would like to thank the foster care workers who were willing to take time out of their busy schedules to be interviewed, as well as the critical and engaged co‐readers Yvonne Aartsen, MSW, Ria Klein, MA, Dr. Jos Kole and Prof. Dr. Siebren Miedema for their constructive comments on previous versions of this article and their highly appreciated participation in the advisory board of the research project.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords

caseworkers
diversity
foster care
identity
trans-religious
worldview

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Child of two worlds How foster care workers perceive their skills inFinal published version, 624 KBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

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Child of two worlds: How foster care workers perceive their skills in dealing with worldview differences in foster care

Abstract

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