Interdependency models to understand breakdown processes in family foster care: A contribution to social pedagogical research

Abstract

Following a brief outline of different foster care research approaches and beneficiaries, reasons are given for the need to develop interdependency models. As part of a programme of social pedagogical research into family foster care, theoretical models are to be developed to describe the complex interplay of widely differing factors that affect fostering processes. Using case reconstruction to investigate foster placement breakdown, a multi-level model is presented. Individual findings are outlined which could help to create a model of this kind, among other things by forming relevant hypotheses. In order to understand processes of stability loss in foster families, what is needed is not so much further data gathering as for existing findings to be integrated into theoretical models which can look for and explain the ways in which multifaceted processes interact. That is the central thesis of this paper.