Expectations held by foster caregivers compared to the reality of their experiences

The experiences foster caregivers have while providing care are linked to important outcomes including placement stability for the child and foster caregiver retention within the child welfare system. Understanding the expectations prospective caregivers have about fostering, and how this compares to their lived experience while fostering, is important for building realistic expectations and addressing unmet needs. The current study used a phenomenological approach through semi-structured qualitative interviews with 45 foster parents (71% female) to assess their recollections of what they had expected fostering to be like, and their thoughts about their fostering experiences to date. Inductive coding revealed positive, negative and neutral expectation and experience themes, as well as a "no expectations" theme, with several subcodes within each. Participants were mixed in terms of whether they agreed their experience had matched their expectations. While a subset of foster caregivers felt their expectations were in alignment with what their lived experience fostering has been, many felt that there were multiple experiences they had not expected, both positive and negative. The themes revealing unmet expectations as well as unforeseen negative experiences have implications for foster care licensing agencies, who can work to assess and develop appropriate expectations for prospective caregivers.