Society

Introduction

Society is a place where people live them sets of instructions and responsibilities. Contemporary society is one that people have no problems and live peacefully benefiting equally from all aspects of the community (Karpetis, 2017). Realistically, organizations have people who have issues of various types. People encounter numerous social problems, such as poverty, illness, and sort of things. People often have problems with taking care of their children due to scarcity, behavioral issues of the kids, government policies, and so on. Whenever somebody in a society has a given problem, social work often comes into their rescue.

From a study objective of critical analysis of an article regarding social work, it would be wise to focus more on the wellbeing of the young generation. An article written by Paulo Delgado and others on “Family contact in foster care in Portugal. The views of children in foster care and other actors,” clearly tackles a social work related to the young generation that is a good focus. The article studies vividly on the experiences at foster care with regards to children and young people.

The article is a pilot study in Portugal that vividly focuses on vital issues children and young people experience at foster care, their contact with origin family, their experience, and views of adult actors in the kid’s lives. The journal goes hand-in-hand with the topic of social work research since these foster parents offer social services to the kids and young people. Providing social services to children and young people gives a better degree of knowledge in the field of social work. Providing social services to young people is a clear indication of government thinking of the country’s future, and a research study and critical analysis will improve these conditions.

Even though little research study often focuses on issues concerning children in foster care, a more significant percentage of them often concentrate on the views of adult actors in foster care. The article significantly focuses on experiences, opinions, and feelings of children and young people in foster care. People in society often give less attention to the knowledge, perspectives, ideas, and attitudes regarding the young generation since they are minor. For an intense study that is more comprehensive, involving the view of the young is often substantial.

Analysis

Performing study research is often to raise awareness about issues that get less focus, giving medical or physical solutions to them, and evaluating practice. Research does not only helps gain knowledge but also assessing different points of view and to come up with recommendations that would deter such issues from popping up more often. The title of research work should be more precise, just as the article in the study.

The abstract of the article gives any ordinary reader a clear overview of the study about children and young people in foster care. From the abstract, it is clear that the pilot study on foster care is qualitative and exploratory, sampling ten children and young people, and the research area in Porto. Through the abstract, the research points at its primary focus and goes ahead to give implications of making foster care more beneficial to children and young people. The research problem is identifying key issues and particular areas that require much study and focus. The implications include finding ways to improve communication between children and origin family, considering the young people’s views while making decisions and developing relationships between foster parents and birth parents.

Due to the lack of enough literature responding to look into details from the perspective of children and young people in foster care, the researchers focused their methodology basically on the children. Before the start of the research, it hard its framework. The framework of the article had it that the researchers’ questionnaire was supposed to be similar to the social worker, children, and young people, foster families, and origin families. The initial population was of two hundred and twenty-one children. To obtain more detailed information from the children and young people, the researchers randomized and received a sample of seventeen children. Out of the seventeen, ten children remained for the study.

The researchers put the research more generalized during the study. The population of two hundred and twenty-one children was given equal opportunity for participation as sampling was random. From the first sample of seventeen children, the children had the right to quit the study at any point they felt. A more generalization comes up from the study when the researcher comes up with three criteria of grouping their samples (Griffin, 2019). These criteria included gender, age, and length of placement in foster care. After three children quit the study, the researchers made sure to consider gender balance in the study. The methodology of the research had some other problems: lacking a child in one criterion of their grouping of males between ten to thirteen years old.

At their methodology stage, the researcher made sure to address the ethical issue that may interfere with any child’s comfort (Mantzorou, 2013).  Before the start, the researchers ensured approval of all procedures by the authorities of the Portuguese Social Service and the ethics board. The support gives the research team the authority to conduct detailed research that would otherwise help them too. During the study, the research team forbade using names and ages of children and social workers; this is clear ethical evidence that the research team respected the rights of their samples.

Ethically, it is also right that the sample in the research was not of any discrimination as everyone had equal rights. More care was also in the questions asked to the children that could otherwise trigger some painful moments, such as why they are in foster care. The team also confidentially held the results they obtained. The study had questions on the same topic.

The research collected their data, did the analysis, and grouped their final findings into various comprehensive dimensions (Jenn, 2006). The aspects include children’s and young people’s experience in fostering their relationships and attitudes during placement, and their reactions during after visitations. The children and young people, foster parents, social workers, professionals, and origin parents gave their results that brought a clear picture of the scenario. Each unit’s view was into consideration.

The first finding from the research was on children and young people’s relationships and attitudes during placement in foster care. The questions that the research team asked were the children’s report on foster placement, their contact with the origin family, and their interactions (Paulo Delgado, 2019). According to (Delap, 2011), foster care is a context of family life that equips children protection, life education, social relation, and so much more.

According to the research findings, a higher percentage of children who participated in the study implies that even though they initially found it hard at foster care, they got used. A positive response from children between five to nine years proved that their life at foster care was perfect since they had friends and foster carers and had the opportunity to see their parents. Higher percentage saw their new settings as more advantageous as they could get an education and better medical care. Relationship between some origin parents and foster parents also affected the well being of their children as some of them would frequently argue over minor issues. Though less, some children never saw the reason for not always being with their parents.

The second category of the researcher’s findings was on children and young people’s reactions during and after visitations. Whenever the origin families went for visitations, their children often had a lot of expectations, which are again different when they depart. In a bid to identify how the children felt before and after the visitations, the research team brought questions. In taking the children’s and young people’s opinions on the feelings they manifest during a visitation, a more significant percentage of them saw it as a form of love from their origin family. They thought that the visitations are essential since they assure them of the wellbeing of their origin families. Others go ahead, saying that they would see their parents often and do everything to make it happen.

The children and young people show a lot of contentment with their life at foster care if they keep their relationships with their origin families. Despite the children having positive comments, there was a difference from the feedback of adult actors in their lives. For instance, professionals said that the children are often happy and anxious before visitations but confused after visitations. There was a difference in comments from the foster parents and origin parents. Comments from origin parents seemed more positive than from the adoptive parents.

The third category of findings was difficulties concerning the frequency of contact. Children and young people had different views concerning how they wanted the visitations to be. A more significant percentage of the children and young people loved it when their parents came for visitations and would not love seeing their parents leave. A lot of them to wanted the visitations to be of longer duration and more frequent. These views about how frequently they wanted visitations got linked with parents’ opinions on difficulties they face that hinder them from visiting. A lot of times, parents would plan visitations but fail to show up.

Response from parents and foster care actors seem to differ concerning reasons for cancellation of visits. Social workers termed that the relationship between the children and their parents affected the visitations. Most of the original parents just want to forget about their kids because of maybe a lack of love between them. Parents’ views were from a different perspective as most of them mentioned that the distance between foster care and their homes were far and that they found it hard to travel frequently. Another group of parents said that they lacked the money to finance their frequent travel fare.

Summary

In summary, many children and young people in the study gave positive comments regarding contact with their origin families. The feedbacks were response full of feelings of different kinds: joy, sadness, longing, anxiety, and contentment. Recent literature focusing on contact between children and origin families suggest a lot of importance regarding children’s life. Children who are often in touch with their origin parents in the foster care record increase in physical and genealogical identity, decrease in feelings of guilt, and promotion of high self-esteem (Triseliotis, 2010).

The contact between children and their foster parents should always be positive. Positive contact between children and their parents often has a tremendous positive impact on wellbeing children (Wall Champman, 2004). Feeling of being okay at the placement impacts the psychological wellbeing of the children and gives them have a feeling of belonging. Even though these contacts have positive effects on children’s lives, they often face some difficulties. As the article mentioned at the findings stage, origin and foster parents often have an impaired relationship. Therefore, to ensure the well being of the children, both parties should come together and contribute financially or emotionally towards wellbeing of their children (Sen., 2011). These contacts face a lot of problems, including hostility, conflict disqualification, and misunderstandings between the children and their parents (Delgado, 2014).

In conclusion, contacts between parents have borne a lot of benefits than disadvantages. Therefore, to keep the contacts more beneficial, parents should be more cautious about their actions in the presence of their children in foster and ensure to often keep in touch. This article’s pilot study has met a lot of qualifications of a research paper, including a clear and precise abstract, generalized methodologies, deep analysis of data, and ethical observance.

References

Delap, E., 2011. Improving foster care provision around the world. Foster better care, p. 44.

Delgado, J. C. a. P., 2014. Contact in foster care: Bridge or collision between two worlds?. Journal of AppliedResearch on children: Informing Policyfor Children at Risk, 5(1).

Griffin, Q. B. a. C., 2019. Business Research Methods. School of Applied Sciences.

Jenn, C., 2006. Common Ethical Issues In Research And Publication. Malays Fam Physician, Issue 2-3, pp. 74-76.

Karpetis, G., 2017. Social Work Skills. British Journal of Social Work, Volume 48.

Mantzorou, G. F. a. M., 2013. What are the major ethical issues in conducting research? is there a conflict between the research ethics and the nature of nursing?. Health Science Journal, Volume 13.

Paulo Delgado, V. S. P. J. M. C. a. R. G., 2019. Family contact in foster care in Portugal. The views of children in foster care and other actors.

Sen., J. M. a., 2011. Foster carers’ involvement in contact: other professionals’ views prectice. Social work in action, 23(5), pp. 279-292.

Triseliotis, J., 2010. Contact beween looked after children and their parents: A level playing field. Adoption and Fostering, 34(3), pp. 59-66.

Wall Champman, B. R. P., 2004. Children’s voices: the perceptions of children in foster care. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 74(3), pp. 293-304.