Teaching psychology students to work with foster families at different stages of foster families’ life cycle

Abstract

A foster family is a family in a difficult life situation, and it needs both the social protection of the state and specially organized psychological assistance. Foster families are distinguished by their composition (either a large family or a family consisting of a foster parent and a foster child) and by gender and age of family members (foster parents are more often grandmothers of their underage grandchildren). The life situation of foster family is characterized by the absence of parents, which causes psychological trauma to all members of foster family. Unresolved grief hinders the development of both the individual and the family as a whole. It is often the case that specialists have neither the necessary knowledge nor psychopedagogical skills to provide effective assistance to foster families. The article describes the experience of teaching undergraduate students (Education Psychology program) to work with foster families at different stages of such families’ life cycle. The We started with creating a self-designed questionnaire and using it to measure the awareness of psychology students about the peculiarities of the foster family and assess their psychological readiness to provide psycho-pedagogical support to families in difficult life situations. Then we created and tested the course Family Psychology, in which a large section is devoted to foster family psychology. We also included psycho-pedagogical interaction with foster families in the students’ internship program. Finally, we repeated the questionnaire survey to identify the effectiveness of the proposed training. Upon completion of the course, the students who took part in the study showed solid theoretical knowledge and practical skills required for working with foster families. Based on the results, we created a professional development program for teacher-psychologists and employees of government bodies working with foster families.