Richardson Evin Winkelman, Mallette Jacquelyn K, Futris Ted G, Brown Rachel, Starke Jessica, Cui Shuangyue, Shepherd Lydia
College of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.
College of Health and Human Performance, East Carolina University, Greenville, South Carolina, USA.
Fam Process. 2025 Jun;64(2):e70044. doi: 10.1111/famp.70044.
The United States is in a foster care crisis with nearly 400,000 children in need of care and not enough foster homes to fill this need. Therefore, recruiting and retaining high-quality foster care homes is essential for the placement stability and well-being of some of our society's most vulnerable children. For foster caregivers in a couple relationship, the health of the couple and coparenting relationship may play a major role in their well-being and satisfaction, influencing their retention. Guided by existing literature and the sound house theory (Gottman and Silver 2015), the current study employs latent profile analysis to examine the interparental relationship quality of 79 different-sex foster caregiver couples, potential covariates of their interparental relationship quality, and their intent to continue fostering for the next 12 months. Three groups of foster caregiver couples emerged where (1) both partners reported high interparental relationship quality, (2) both partners reported moderate relationship quality, and (3) fathers reported moderate relationship quality and mothers reported low relationship quality. Couple and foster caregiver demographic characteristics were not associated with foster caregiver couple groups. Foster mothers in groups where foster fathers reported moderate interparental relationship quality and mothers reported low interparental relationship quality reported significantly lower intentions to continue fostering. These findings have potential implications for foster caregiver screening and expanding formal support resources to promote retention. Future research is needed with larger and generalizable samples to further assess the efficacy of couple relationship education on relationship quality and retention of foster caregiver couples.
美国正面临寄养危机，近40万名儿童需要照料，但却没有足够的寄养家庭来满足这一需求。因此，招募并留住高质量的寄养家庭对于安置一些我们社会中最脆弱儿童的稳定性和福祉至关重要。对于处于夫妻关系中的寄养照料者而言，夫妻双方的健康状况以及共同养育子女的关系可能在他们的幸福感和满意度中发挥重要作用，进而影响他们是否继续从事寄养工作。在现有文献和健全家庭理论（戈特曼和西尔弗，2015年）的指导下，本研究采用潜在剖面分析来考察79对不同性别的寄养照料者夫妻的父母间关系质量、其父母间关系质量的潜在协变量，以及他们在未来12个月继续从事寄养工作的意愿。出现了三组寄养照料者夫妻：（1）双方都报告父母间关系质量高；（2）双方都报告关系质量中等；（3）父亲报告关系质量中等，母亲报告关系质量低。夫妻和寄养照料者的人口统计学特征与寄养照料者夫妻组无关。在寄养父亲报告父母间关系质量中等而母亲报告父母间关系质量低的组中，寄养母亲表示继续从事寄养工作的意愿显著较低。这些发现对于寄养照料者筛选以及扩大正式支持资源以促进留用具有潜在意义。未来需要使用更大且具有普遍性的样本进行研究，以进一步评估夫妻关系教育对寄养照料者夫妻关系质量和留用情况的效果。
