Martin E D, Altemeier W A, Hickson G B, Davis A, Glascoe F P
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37232.
Clin Pediatr (Phila). 1992 Jul;31(7):400-4. doi: 10.1177/000992289203100704.
The number of foster children and their psychological and medical morbidity are growing. To gain insight into how to recruit and retain foster homes, characteristics of 64 foster families were determined by interview. Foster parents had low-to-moderate incomes, were approaching middle age, had underutilized home space, and wanted more children. Most enjoyed foster care and planned to continue. Twenty-three percent of the 64 had half of all foster children in the study in their homes at interview and had cared for seven times as many children in the past, including 66% of all the teens and 83% of all the handicapped children who had been in the 64 homes. These "high providers" functioned like group homes for mentally handicapped individuals. Adapting the group-home concept to foster homes could improve care, especially for children with special needs.
寄养儿童的数量及其心理和医疗发病率都在不断增加。为深入了解如何招募和留住寄养家庭，通过访谈确定了64个寄养家庭的特征。寄养父母收入处于低到中等水平，接近中年，家庭空间未得到充分利用，并且希望收养更多孩子。大多数人喜欢寄养并计划继续下去。在接受访谈时，这64个家庭中有23%的家庭收留了研究中一半的寄养儿童，并且过去照顾过的儿童数量是现在的七倍，其中包括所有曾在这64个家庭寄养过的青少年中的66%以及残疾儿童中的83%。这些“高收养量家庭”就像为智障人士设立的集体之家一样发挥作用。将集体之家的理念应用于寄养家庭可以改善照料情况，尤其是对有特殊需求的儿童。
