PECULIARITIES OF INTERACTION OF MOTHERS WITH FOSTER AND BIOLOGICAL CHILDREN

The article is devoted to determining the peculiarities of parent-child interaction of mothers with foster and biological sons and daughters. The main hypothesis was the assumption that there are reliable differences in the interaction with children depending on their gender and depending on the form of parenting of mothers. The study included 218 mothers – 22 to 71 years (M=43.95; SD=10.01), of which foster mothers n=112 – 27 to 71 years (M=50.40; SD=7.69) and biological mothers n=106 – 22 to 55 years (M=37.32; SD=7.46). The mothers’ groups were conventionally divided into 4 subgroups, the first included foster mothers who described their interaction with foster sons (n=48), sons’ ages 3 to 17.5 years (M=12.25; SD=3.87); the second included foster mothers who described their interaction with foster daughters (n=64), daughters’ ages 4 to 17 years (M=12.84 SD=3.24); the third included biological mothers who described their interaction with their biological sons (n=52), their ages 2.9 to 19 years (M=10.61; SD=4.80); the fourth included native mothers who described their interaction with their biological daughters (n=54), the daughters 4 to 17 years (M=10.07; SD=4.49). The results of the study revealed significant differences with regard to foster sons, with whom foster mothers will be more strict than foster daughters. Compared to biological daughters and sons in biological mothers’ interactions with them, foster mothers in relation to their foster sons and daughters will exhibit more controlling behavior, inconsistency in educational tactics, and consider themselves more authoritative parents. The results of the study show that parent-child interaction in biological and foster mothers, depends not so much on the gender of the children, but on the form of their parenthood.

forms of family placement, parent-child interaction, foster mothers, foster sons, foster daughters, biological mothers, biological sons, biological daughters