The Life Situation of Post-Guardianship in the Representations of Members of Kinship Guardian Families

The completion of guardianship is an important period for all family members and can be considered as a special life situation. The study of the post-care period allows us to assess the quality of the passage of the previous stages and to see the prospects for further development of both the foster children (post-foster children) and the guardians (post-guardians). Currently, this stage of the life of foster families is not sufficiently reflected in scientific research. There is a need to supplement empirical data on the problems of foster families after the end of guardianship. The purpose of the study is to study the features of the life situation of postguardianship in the representations of post-guardians and post-foster children. To achieve this goal, a questionnaire has been developed that contains questions aimed at identifying the structure of the post-guardian family, studying subjective assessments of changes in the life situation, analyzing the level of maintaining relationships in the “post-guardian — post-foster children” system, subjective assessment of the level of maintaining social contacts, identifying the ability and willingness of the former guardian to transfer responsibility, subjective assessment of the post-foster children readiness for independent identification of the level of satisfaction with the result of interaction in the family. The study involved 214 members of kinship guardian families. Of these, 112 orphaned children aged 18–25 years and 102 post-guardians aged 45–75 years. The analysis of the responses showed differences in the ideas about the life situation of post-guardianship members of kinship guardian families. Positive ideas about the life situation were revealed in the post-foster children, who at the time of the study had already created their own families and those who live independently. Post-foster children and postguardians, living together, gave lower ratings for the categories of the situation under consideration. Lower ratings were revealed in the representations of post-guardian grandmothers than in the representations of post-guardian aunts. Post-guardian grandmothers living alone, in all the categories under consideration, have negative ideas about the post-guardianship situation, which indicates the need to develop and organize psychological support.

Aslamazova, L. A., Muhamedrahimov, R. J., Vershinina, E. A. (2019). Institutional experience and level of health as factors of behavior specificity of children in substitute families. Psikhologicheskii zhurnal, 40 (1), 47–58. https://doi.org/10.31857/s020595920002249-9 (In Russian)

Cinyavskaya, T. V. (2020). Methodological recommendations for monitoring the dynamics of adaptation of a child in a foster family. Chelovecheskii faktor: sotsial’nyi psikholog,  2 (40), 320–327. (In Russian)

Davis, M. T., Warfield, M. E., Boguslaw, J., Roundtree-Swain, D., Kellogg, G. (2020). Parenting a 6-year old is not what I planned in retirement: Trauma and stress among grandparents due to the opioid crisis. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 63 (4), 295–315. https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2020.1752872

Fučík, P., Janků, K. S. (2019). The challenges and paradoxes of kinship foster care in a socially excluded locality. Socialni Prace,  19 (3), 44–61.

Gorbaneva, M. V., Kolmakova, T. S., Bajer, E. A., Zaluzhnaya, M. V., Grigoryan, N. А., Kovalenko, V. N. (2023). Comparative characteristics of the psycho-emotional state of children and adolescents left without parental care, with different forms of family structure. International Journal of Medicine and Psychology,  6 (5), 108–115. (In Russian)

Korjova, E. Yu., Bezgodova, S. A., Miklyaeva, A. V., Yurkova, E. V. (2020a). The psychology of a foster family: A situational approach.  Saint Petersburg, Herzen State Pedagogical University Press. (In Russian)

Korjova, E. Yu., Bezgodova, S. A., Miklyaeva, A. V., Yurkova, E. V. (2022). Interaction styles in child-guardian relationships in kinship and non-kinship guardian families. Psychology in Education, 4 (1), 31–40. https://doi.org/10.33910/2686-9527-2022-4-1-31-40

Korjova, E. Yu., Volkova, E. V., Miklyaeva, A. V., Bezgodova, S. A., Yurkova, E. V. (2020b). Event fullness of the guardians’ life perspective as a relationship characteristic in the kinship and non-kinship guardians’ families. Sotsial’naia psikhologiia i obshchestvo, 11 (3), 86–98. https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2020110306 (In Russian)

Kozyreva, V. V. (2019). Socio-psychological peculiarities of experience by men and women of crisis of the “empty nest”. Vestnik universiteta, 4, 173–180. https://doi.org/10.26425/1816-4277-2019-4-173-180 (In Russian)

Makhnach, A. V. (2019a). The problem of generation in a foster family as a special small social group. Sotsial’naia psikhologiia i obshchestvo, 10 (2), 146–156. https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2019100211 (In Russian)

Makhnach, A. V. (2019b). Trends in studying the family and characteristics of the composition related to its resilience. Vestnik RGGU. Psikhologiia, Pedagogika, Obrazovanie, 2, 37–50. https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6398-2019-2-37-50 (In Russian)

Makhnach, A. V. (2019c). Characteristics of structure of a foster family and its viability. Vestnik Kostromskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 25 (2), 46–51. https://doi.org/10.34216/2073-1426-2019-25-2-46-51 (In Russian)

Muhamedrahimov, R. J., Aslamazova, L. A., Vershinina, E. A. (2019). The role of the Programme of Psychological Support in attachment disorder behavior among children in substitute families. Psikhologicheskii zhurnal, 40 (3), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.31857/s020595920004554-5 (In Russian)

Oslon, V. N. (2011). An ecological and dynamic approach to the psychological support of a substitute family. Psikhologicheskaia nauka i obrazovanie,  16 (1), 27–37. (In Russian)

Posty’lyakova, Yu. V. (2015). Individual and family resources of candidates for substitute parents. Problema sirotstva v sovremennoi Rossii: Psikhologicheskii aspect,  459–477. (In Russian)

Rolock, N., Pérez, A. G. (2016). Three sides to a foster care story: An examination of the lived experiences of young adults, their foster care case record, and the space in between. Qualitative Social Work, 17 (2), 195–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325016666410

Rolock, N., White, K. R. (2016). Post-permanency discontinuity: A longitudinal examination of outcomes for foster youth after adoption or guardianship. Children and Youth Services Review, 70, 419–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.10.025

Saenko, L., Solomatina, G. (2020). Main stages of the life cycle of the replacing family: Modeling and content filling. Vestnik Severo-Kavkazskogo federal’nogo universiteta, 2 (77), 202–207. https://doi.org/10.37493/2307-907x.2020.2.27 (In Russian)

Shabalina, E. V., Muhamedrahimov, R. J. (2021). Analysis of caregiver-child interaction when transferring children from a baby home to post-institutional families. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Psikhologiia,  11 (2), 150–161. (In Russian)

Shabalina, E. V., Muhamedrahimov, R. J. (2022). Relationship of indicators of caregiver — child interaction with the child’s age and length of stay in a baby home and foster families. Sibirskii psikhologicheskii zhurnal, 84, 156–168. https://doi.org/10.17223/17267080/84/9 (In Russian)

Shul’ga, T. I. (2016). Problems of adaptation of children left without parental care, including those with disabilities, in foster families. Psikhologicheskaia nauka i obrazovanie, 21 (4), 75–82. https://doi.org/10.17759/pse.2016210407 (In Russian)

Solomatina, G. N. (2020). Socio-pedagogical factors of interaction in a substitute family. Kant, 3 (36), 384–388. https://doi.org/10.51944/20738498_2023_2_120 (In Russian)

Solomatina, G. N., Sumenko, L. V. (2022). Social success of the foster child as a factor of the efficiency of the foster family. Nauchno-pedagogicheskoe obozrenie, 6 (46), 104–113. https://doi.org/10.23951/2307-6127-2022-6-104-113 (In Russian)

Solomatina, G. N., Sumenko, L. V. (2023). Preparing teachers to work with a difficult pedagogical situation in a substitute family. Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii obrazovaniia, 2 (62), 120–129. https://doi.org/10.51944/20738498_2023_2_120 (In Russian)

Tuzova, O. N., Kardakova, I. N. (2015). Psychological rehabilitation of a child in the process of accompanying a family with a consanguineous form of custody. Sovremennye issledovaniia sotsial’nykh problem,  7, 477–486. (In Russian)

Xu, Ya., Jedwab, M., Lee, K. A., Levkoff, S. E. (2023). The negative effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on behavioral problems of children in kinship care: The protective role of kinship caregivers’ mental health. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 31 (1), 41–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/10634266221076475

White, K. R., Rolock, N., Marra, L., Faulkne, M., Ocasio, K., Fong, R. (2020). Understanding wellbeing and caregiver commitment after adoption or guardianship from foster care. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 15 (2), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2020.1850601

Zaluzhnaya, M. V., Xakunova, F. P., Bersirova, A. K., Zhazheva, D. D., Grigoryan, N. A. (2022). The results of monitoring the social and pedagogical indicators of substitute families. Sotsial’naia pedagogika v Rossii. Nauchno-metodicheskii zhurnal, 5, 54–58. (In Russian)