Vilken relation har fosterföräldrar till sina fosterbarn.
En kvalitativ studie av fosterföräldrarnas upplevelse av fosterföräldrauppdraget.
The purpose of this study is to explore the relations between foster parents and their foster children, what kind of motivation there is behind their involvement in foster children, how they experience the commission and what good parenting mean to them. The study is including eight foster parents. They have experience of both long and short placement of foster children. The results show that all these foster families have at least one child that they have a good relationship with. It is important to know that those children either have spent many years in foster families or arrived to foster families when they were very young or as infants. Results show that there are many motives for commissions. But the leading motive is empathy to children and a desire to take care of those children who are deprived and need love. The commission has both positive and negative aspects. The most positive aspects of the commission are to see those foster children successfully developed and turned in to good human beings. On the other hand the most negative aspects of the commission are, that the own children don?t get so much own time and space with the parents, because foster children takes most of their free time. Good foster parents are those who ensure to foster children a feeling of secure, acceptance, empathy and who have capacity to see foster children as individuals. Their most important aim is to help foster children to create a good life. The biggest aim is to guarantee the foster children safety, structure and a calm existence. The collected material has been compared to earlier studies and theorists.