AN INVESTIGATION OF THE NEED SATISFACTION OF FOSTER FAMILIES, TURKEY

The present study aimed to investigate the need satisfaction of the foster families. The study employed a descriptive and cross-sectional design. The population of the study was comprised of foster families residing throughout Turkey. The participants were reached out via snowball method. The data was collected from 124 voluntary foster parents through face-to-face interview technique between January 2013 and January 2014. The data collection tools included a survey on the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals (8 items) as developed by the researchers along with the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale as developed by Deci & Ryan (1991) and adapted to Turkish by Cihangir-Çankaya & Bacanlı (2003).

The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale as applied to the foster parents was .81. It was seen that the foster families had high need satisfaction scores (mean total item score was 5.55 ± .75). There was no statistically significant difference in participants’ mean item scores out of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale by the parameters of sex, age, educational status, marital status, and presence of biological child (p>.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the mean scores out of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale and the participants view about the foster family notion and their priorities regarding the childcare (p>.05).

Since the subjective wellness of the individuals improves with the satisfied psychological needs, the parents would be more happy and effective in that care model. The psychological need satisfaction of the individuals involved in social support mechanisms should be identified and the target groups with the potential to become foster families should be provided with information and awareness training.