Article
Parenting attitudes, foster parenting attitudes, and motivations of adoptive and nonadoptive foster parent trainees

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-7409(98)00033-4Get rights and content

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes and motivations of adoptive and nonadoptive foster parent trainees toward parenting and foster parenting. Subjects were 44 adoptive female participants and 149 nonadoptive female trainees. Multivariate Analysis of Covariance revealed significant differences between adoptive and nonadoptive trainees in parenting attitudes, foster parenting attitudes, and motivations for foster parenting. Inspection of adjusted means indicated that adoptive trainees had more positive attitudes toward parenting than nonadoptive trainees on three parenting dimensions: inappropriate parental expectations of children, parental value of physical punishment, and lack of empathy toward children's needs. Nonadoptive trainees had more positive attitudes toward parenting than adoptive trainees on parent-child role reversal. Inspection of adjusted means for foster parenting attitudes revealed that adoptive trainees identified more with the role of foster parenting than did nonadoptive trainees, although nonadoptive trainees had higher scores on foster parenting expectations than adoptive trainees. Inspection of adjusted means for motivations indicated that adoptive trainees were more motivated than nonadoptive trainees in four areas: rescuing a child, companionship for adult, replacing grown children, and companionship for own child. Nonadoptive trainees were more motivated by financial gain. One implication of these findings is that these two groups may require different training curricula.

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