| dc.description.abstract | Research has deemed the incorporation of a child into a family as a crisis because of loss of sleep, lower sexual responsiveness, economic pressures, increased chores, and stress (Anderson, Russell, & Schumm, 1983; LeMasters, 1959; Leavitt, McDaniel, Maas, & Feinberg, 2017). In addition to the universal responsibilities of caring for a child, foster parenting involves working with birth families, arranging resources for foster children, forming a secure parent-child relationship, helping children adjust, maintaining records on the child, and working with foster agencies (Rhodes, Orme, & McSurdy, 2003). Despite the unique challenges of fostering, little investigation has been done on how fostering impacts the marital relationship. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Oklahoma foster parents perceive foster parenting to have impacted their marital relationship. It was hypothesized that foster parenting would have a negative influence on foster parents' marital relationships. Participants responded to a mixed methods online survey in the Fall of 2019. Seventy responses were used for analysis. Analysis surprisingly revealed that the participants were relatively satisfied in their relationships and did not report particularly high levels of stress. Furthermore, although participants consistently cited difficult challenges in fostering, many found fostering to have been an experience that enriched their relationship. The findings are important to note as professionals working with foster parents to consider the potential positive impact that fostering could have on foster parent well-being. In order to draw more detailed implications, additional studies with representative samples are needed. | en_US |
