Psychological Science and Education
2021. Vol. 26, no. 6, 149–163
doi:10.17759/pse.2021260612
ISSN: 1814-2052 / 2311-7273 (online)
Invariant and Variant Sociopsychological Characteristics of Successful Foster Mothers
Abstract
As part of the development of tools for sociopsychological assessment of prospective foster parents, we conducted a factorization of the array of data obtained with a set of diagnostic techniques and identified the contribution of each component to the success of foster care. Invariant and variant characteristics of successful foster mothers are highlighted (N=128).Foster mothers were selected based on the expert opinion of the professional community and trained as coaches of foster families. It is shown that successful foster mothers have a number of characteristics that allow them to raise foster children over a long period of time. These characteristics should be considered as criteria for selecting potential reliable guardians. Among the invariant characteristics are: the viability of family, the dominance of motivation of altruism and self-realization in children, high levels of emotion management, extroversion, consciousness, emotional stability, parental competence. The variant characteristics are as follows: the experience of foster parenting, the intensity of motivation aimed at resolving family and personal crises, ‘replacing’ a child, solving demographic problems, filling an empty nest, as well as the level of emotional intelligence and its components (except emotion managment); personality traits (level of compliance, openness to experience); altruistic investment. The invariant-variant approach enables us to address the sociopsychological portrait of the foster mother in its integrity.
General Information
Keywords: foster mothers, invariant and variant characteristics, sociopsycho¬logical portrait, orphan child
Journal rubric: Developmental Psychology
Article type: scientific article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/pse.2021260612
Funding. The reported study was funded by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation “Psy¬chological, pedagogical and socio-legal justification of the variability of psychodiagnostic procedures for assessing prospective foster parents, children and employees of organizations for orphans and children without parental care”, no.073-00041-21-03 dated 11.06.2021.
Received: 22.11.2021
Accepted:
For citation: Oslon V.N., Odintsova M.A., Semya G.V., Zinchenko E.A. Invariant and Variant Sociopsychological Characteristics of Successful Foster Mothers. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie = Psychological Science and Education, 2021. Vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 149–163. DOI: 10.17759/pse.2021260612. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)
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