This study investigated the factors, which affected the decision to Decision to Foster Parents of Foster Care Disruption. The researcher selected 6 foster parents (3 foster care disrupted parents and 3 foster care disruption deciding parents) and used depth interview and participant observation as qualitative research method. Also, grounded-theory method and the time-ordered matrix and network of Miles and Huberman (1994) were used to analyze the factors, which affected the decision to maintain or terminate the foster care among foster parents.
The study found active ‘role-recognition of foster parents’, ‘sympathy and acceptance to negative reaction such as the problematic behaviors of the foster child’, ‘secure supporting power’, ‘acknowledgment of foster child as a family member’ by family’, ‘close relatives’ and ‘close relationship with biological parents’as the factors affecting the foster parents’ decision to maintain the foster care. Also, ‘the conflicts with biological children’, ‘guilt of foster parents’, ‘excessive role-allotment due to physical fatigue’, ‘conflicts with biological parents’ ‘burn-out of foster parents’ and ‘loss of determination on foster care’ were the factors affecting the foster parents’ decision to terminate the foster care.
The finding of the study suggests to place a child at a foster home fitting to physical, emotional and social characteristics of the foster child, because it is the most important factor to reduce the disruption of foster care. And it is necessary to form a positive interrelation between foster parents and biological parent factor to reduce the termination of foster care.
Key words:foster parents, Foster Care Disruption, foster care children, treatment foster care, casemanagement network center.