Mütterliches Rollenverhalten und das Erleben leiblicher Kinder in der Übergangspflege

Abstract

Die deutschlandweit steigenden Zahlen der Inobhutnahmen durch die Jugendhilfe führen zu vermehrten Vermittlungen von Kindern in Heime sowie Übergangspflegestellen. Untersuchungsgegenstand dieser Arbeit sind die leiblichen Kinder dieser Übergangspflegestellen. Sie wurden aus dem Grunde ausgewählt, als dass sie ebenso wie ihre Eltern mit wechselnden aufgenommenen Kindern konfrontiert werden und lernen müssen, mit diesen zu leben. Als Untersuchungsmethode wird ein empirischer Forschungsansatz vorgestellt, der an die erziehungswissenschaftliche Biographieforschung angelehnt ist und sich an der Grounded Theory nach Strauss & Corbin orientiert.

In Germany, increasing numbers of children are taken into care by local authorities and youth services, and this leads to a rise in placements in either children’s homes or in emergency and short-term foster settings. The legal basis for the removal of children from their birth family is regulated by the Child and Youth Services Act in § 42 SGB VIII (social security code). There are high demands on short-term foster families, in that they represent a dynamic, highly complex element within the care system provided by the state’s children services. In addition, these families often have their own biological children to look after, and the care of children in crisis or in emergency situations is added to this pre-existing responsibility. The subjects at the centre of this study are the biological children of short-term foster families. This group was selected because, like their parents, they experience a high turnover of foster children in their family. This requires them to develop specific coping skills in order to master their situation. Also, only a very small number of studies so far have investigated the biological children’s experiences of growing-up in a foster setting. The study employed an empirical approach that was based on the biographical research paradigm and on the Grounded Theory methodology developed by Strauss & Corbin . The subjects were identified through theoretical and selective sampling, and the research data were generated through in-depth interviews using these qualitative data, it was possible to reconstruct the biological children’s experiences of growing up in a short-term foster family, as well as the strategies they developed for coping with this situation, and the support they received in the process. The results of this study demonstrate a range of experiences that are unique to the context of short-term fostering. The majority of the biological children tended to feel overlooked by their parents, who were often struggling to cope with the challenging behaviours and problems of their foster children. In all of the included cases, the mother was the main carer. A significant result of the study was that the mother’s role behaviours towards her biological children, compared to her behaviours towards her foster children, determined her own children’s experiences and perceptions of growing up in a short-term foster family. The results of this study suggest that children of mothers who aimed to treat biological and foster children the same, were at risk of feeling alienated. In contrast, mothers who adopted distinct role behaviours (i.e. biological mother versus professional mother) appeared to better support their biological children in developing positive attitudes towards living in short-term foster families.