Foster parent perceptions of role discrepancies in the foster parent-social worker relationship

A forty-nine item role prescription inventory was issued to 282 foster parents. The role inventory was designed to elicit perceptions of responsibility for both actual and ideal role performance. Data were analyzed in three ways: a frequency distribution of percentages of respondents reporting discrepancies between real and ideal role perceptions, McNemar Test for Significance of Changes and the Wilcoxen Matched Pairs-Signed Ranks Test.

These foster parents perceived discrepancies between real and ideal role performance in every aspect of foster care practice examined. The way responses changed from reports of real to ideal role performance consistently expressed a need for increased shared responsibility between foster parents and social workers. The study examined the areas of foster care practice in which foster parents would ideally reduce or increase the degree of their own responsibility.