Postmarital Life Challenges After Foster Care Discharge: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Many children have entered foster care centers due to different reasons, and they will experience new conditions after leaving these centers. This research explored the experiences of the postmarital life of women with a history of residence in foster care centers. It was conducted using a qualitative content analysis. The data were collected through semistructured interviews with 21 former foster care women and experts. Data analysis was performed using coding and classification of codes. The main extracted theme was “Life in Suspension.” The extracted codes were placed in 10 subcategories and three categories, including (a) spoiled identity, (b) social pressures, and (c) unstable marital life. The need for planning to reduce the various challenges of this group and increase their quality of life, both during and after foster care centers, is essential.

Keywords

content analysis foster care centers postmarital life qualitative research

Introduction

The family is one of the most important social institutions, which is the main focus of human growth. Family issues are one of the most serious issues of contemporary humans. Family life may not be possible for all children for a variety of reasons, including the experience of domestic violence and in utero exposure to drugs and alcohol, which may cause special conditions for children to live in an environment outside the family (Bruskas & Tessin, 2013; Smith et al., 2007). There are many types of centers and services in the world to take care of this group of children. In one of these classifications, five types of these centers are mainly identified based on durability time, immediate or crisis care, respite care, short- to medium-term care, long-term or permanent care, and relative or kinship care.

There are various statistics of children using these services around the world. About 4% to 6% of children in Western countries have spent part of their lives in different types of foster care (Mc Grath-Lone et al., 2016). In the United States, there are approximately 400,000 children in foster care each year (Fowler et al., 2017). It seems that these people are exposed to a greater risk of physical, psychological, and social harm than their counterparts outside the child welfare system (Hambrick et al., 2016; Vinnerljung & Hjern, 2018).

Iran is no exception, and headless and poorly supervised children who have been largely deprived of a family, or have spent a significant portion of their growing up in troubled and stressful families, are supported by organizations such as the Welfare Organization. According to the latest statistics, the number of people covered by these centers in Iran is about 25,000 children. According to current laws, the main coverage of these services is generally up to the age of 18. Coherent services and support are not given to them after this age and getting married, and they leave these centers.

Previous types of research showed that there are major gaps in identifying needs and providing services to individuals after leaving foster care (Collins, 2004). Therefore, the results of this study could be a step toward reducing this gap. Studies in this field have been considered in various countries in recent years, but there is still little literature on the different aspects of people’s lives after leaving foster care in developing countries (Stein & Munro, 2008). Some of the studies in this field have examined the transition period from foster care to independent living as well as the factors that influence the success of this transition. Leaving foster care and entering the period of independence is a multilateral process, which depends on various factors, including their personal development. This personal growth is itself dependent on the welfare system of the community, childhood experiences, challenges and problems, vulnerabilities and abilities, and social support (Courtney et al., 2012). One of the main paths of research in this area focused on the leaving care outcomes and challenges (Dixon, 2008; Dixon & Stein, 2005; Foster & Gifford, 2004; Geenen & Powers, 2007; Van Breda & Dickens, 2015). Results of a study in South Africa 1 year after youth leaving care showed that they had fairly secure accommodation, low levels of homelessness, and low levels of criminal involvement and substance abuse. However, they were vulnerable in their educational attainment and employment outcomes (Dickens, 2018).

In two recent systematic review studies, four factors of subjective experiences, abilities, emotions, and identity have been evident in the successful transition of individuals discharged from foster care (Häggman-Laitila et al., 2018; Parry & Weatherhead, 2014). Häggman-Laitila et al. (2019) mentioned personality traits, caregiver characteristics, and good education as important preconditions for a successful transition and appropriate postdischarge life in a systematic review study. Blakeslee (2012) considers social networking features such as size, intensity, trust, and cohesion as one of the most important factors in the success of individuals after discharge from foster care (Blakeslee, 2012).

Stein (2006) points to three groups during the study on resilience among people who discharged from foster care. The first group is “moving on” people who face the normal and ordinary challenges of dependent lives through increased confidence and self-esteem and maintain their positive social relationships with others. The second group is “survivors” who do not receive adequate care and face the challenges of getting a job and living independently. They have problems in their social relationships. Despite needing financial and personal support, the group can feel somewhat independent. The third group is victims who usually have had more difficult family experiences in the past. They have received temporary support at care centers and have been unable to complete the education and required training (Stein, 2006).

Other groups of studies were related to qualitative research, which focused on care leavers’ experiences of transition and independent living (Meyer, 2008; Pinkerton & Rooney, 2014; Reid & Ross, 2005; Ringle et al., 2008). In a grounded theory study about the process of care leaving, researchers found that four central social processes, including striving for authentic belonging, networking people for goal attainment, contextualized responsiveness, and building hopeful and tenacious self-confidence, explain the care-leaving experiences of the participants (Van Breda, 2015).

To the best of our knowledge, few studies have examined the status of married life (the postmarriage status) after discharge from these centers. In a quantitative study conducted in India on awareness of girls’ social reintegration status after being discharged from foster care in 2016, questions have been asked about their educational, occupational, and social status. The results showed that a total of 50% of girls were able to achieve higher education and savings. Organizational and social support was available for only one third of them. Moreover, factors such as education level, their age at the time of leaving the center, access to social support, and provision of plans for leaving the center and entering the community are the most important predictors of success in the postdischarge period (Dutta, 2017).

It seems that living in two completely different environments and conditions can be one of the reasons that make it necessary to examine the family life of those leaving these centers. Given the background and vulnerability of this group, they seem to have specific and different experiences in their family life. Discovering and exploring these experiences can enhance the understanding of their life experiences and provide the opportunity for policy making to have appropriate social interventions for this group of women whether they live in boarding centers or they are discharged. In addition, understanding how these women interact with their past, understanding how to use and what kind of strategy should be used to solve family problems, and the view of society to their family life are all important issues that enhance the importance of this research. One of the professions that can improve the life of this group of people is social assistance. Social workers can be very helpful in understanding the status of this group of people with their expertise, knowledge, information, and professional skills. The most important roles of social workers in working with this group of people include support, empowerment, life skills training, and postdischarge follow-up. The results of this study can provide the necessary background for the well-being and improvement of the quality of life of these people, as well as reducing their consequences and potential problems by identifying the family life experiences of those who have lived in these centers. Eventually, they will be more ready to experience the reality of the world outside of foster care centers. The main purpose of the present research is to explore the family life experiences of women living in semifamily centers.

Method

This qualitative study has employed a content analysis method.

Participants

The participants in this research were 15 women with long-term residency in foster care centers and six experts in this field who were selected by purposeful sampling and maximum variation strategy of those with experience and expertise. The samples were difficult to find because of the publicity and sensitivity of this target group. Therefore, the snowball method also was used in this research to reach some participants. It should be noted that the participants were selected from individuals with at least 5 years of experience in foster care and at least 1 year of marriage to better explore family life.

Data Collection

In this research, semistructured interviews were used to explore the experiences of women living in semifamily centers. The time and place of the interview were selected based on the convenience of the interviewees and their coordination. Before starting the interview, the researcher prepared the field for a better and easier interview by establishing a good relationship and trying to gain the trust of the participant. Then, the interview began with introducing the researcher and expressing the objectives of the research as well as obtaining informed consent from the participants with general and open-ended questions. Following the interview, the researcher delves deeper into the interview by asking exploratory and follow-up questions based on the interview guide. During the interviews, participants’ nonverbal behaviors such as tone of voice, emotions, and facial expressions were also considered and noted. Finally, the participant was asked to comment if any note remained. The approximate time of the interviews was 45 to 90 minutes. It should be noted that this study has a Code of Ethics No. IR.USWR.REC.1396.315 from the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences.

Data Analysis

Interviews were recorded, and the content of the interviews was completed, transcribed, and typed immediately. According to the principles of content analysis, semantic units and codes were extracted after a repeated and careful reading of the text of the interviews. The extracted codes were compared and gradually subdivided into classes and subclasses. Interviews continued until data saturation was achived.

Trustworthiness

In this research, four criteria of the validity of qualitative research, namely, credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability, were used to prove the accuracy of the research data, which were introduced by Guba and Lincoln (Schwandt et al., 2007). To assess the trustworthiness, several steps were considered as below: prolonged engagement between the first author and participants, the maximum diversity in the selection of participants, assuring participants about the confidentiality of their identities, returning transcripts and codes to some of the participants to check for accuracy and resonance with their experiences (member check), the detailed report of the study processes, and enhancing data validation by collaborative reflection which was conducted by the research team at different stages of the study.

Results

The participants of the research were 15 women with a history of residency in foster care centers in Tehran and six social workers and psychologists with specialty and experience working in foster care centers. The mean age of women with the history of residency in foster care centers was 26.8 years old and five of them had five children. Most of them (13 people) had a high school diploma and under diploma.

The findings of this research were summarized into three main categories, including (a) spoiled identity, (b) social pressures, and (c) unstable marital life after analyzing the data and coding. Moreover, the main theme of this research was (life in suspension), derived from the above-mentioned categories.

Spoiled Identity

One of the main categories that were extracted in this research is the spoiled identity. The majority of research participants identified conditions that reflect the identity challenges that have been associated with these individuals since their beginning of life. This category consists of three subcategories of early turbulent life, laboratory life versus social life, and defective social interactions.

Turbulent life

Women with the history of residency in foster care centers considered the traumatic experiences of the past as one of the most important challenges in their lives and stated that they had witnessed ongoing conflict with parents during their past lives, especially during their childhood. They considered the concept of tension as the most important memory of that era. In this regard, one participant described this experience as follows:

. . . my dad was like that right from the start, at least from where I remember. I remember he tied our hands and feet, and kicked and tortured my mother to death in front of our eyes. I don’t remember anything good from my childhood . . . (P4)

Emotional deficiencies, especially in early life, have also been another feature of this tumultuous environment that has affected the current lives of these women. One participant said,

all the thing we wanted was attention. All the attention that we didn’t have. We didn’t have it to be able to learn it. So far, there was no such thing in dad’s house. There was no one at all to ask love. Then, it was the center and the same conditions. We just thought we had come somewhere we were supposed to be watched out, but there was no such news . . . (P1)

Laboratory life versus social life

Although participants found living in foster centers a means of coping with social harm, another challenge posed to the early turbulent life category was the experience of social constraints in foster centers, which was very different from the outside world. Leaving these centers put them in conditions that were very different from living in those centers.

One participant described this situation as follows:

I had some dreams. I thought to continue my education after leaving the center and I would have a better life. But when I discharged, it wasn’t what I wanted. I suffered so much. Well, we had good conditions in Welfare Organization. We thought our condition would be good when we were discharged and it gets even better. But nothing went well . . . (P3)

Another participant was satisfied with the living conditions in the foster center, but expressed concern about the difference between this environment and the external environment:

. . . It is true that, like people living with their families, we are not comfortable and have various shortcomings. But here (in the foster center), we are safe from many problems and somewhat relaxed. One of my biggest concerns is when we want to move out of here and go out. I don’t know what the conditions are there and how long we can survive. (P4)

Defective social interactions

Another important experience that the majority of participants reported was the lack of social support, lack of social networks, and/or poor communication networks. This made life harder for them after leaving the foster center.

For example, a participant who had been abused by her husband’s family and eventually had to cut off her relationship with them described her family situation as follows:

. . . It was terribly annoying for me. I didn’t have many friends and relatives. Those I knew were my husband’s relatives didn’t respect me, I was annoyed when I went to them. They treated me like a useless and worthless. As if I was nothing, I was annoyed. I cut off my connection . . . [spite] . . . (P9)

Another participant commented on the reaction of a few of her friends after finding out about her past life:

Since the day I told her how my family is spending their life, she no longer asked about me. I called her several times, but she talked to me with disgust until she finally told me that she didn’t want to be in touch with me anymore. From then on, it looks as if she has no friends like me . . . (P11)

Social Pressure

Another main category, which has been extracted in this study, is social pressure. In this category, the challenge of social pressure affects the family life of women discharged from foster care centers. Participants in the study mentioned the root of some of the problems in these families to the pressures and interventions of others in their lives. This category included three subcategories of acceptance of inevitable situations, inappropriate interference of others, and social stigma.

Acceptance of inevitable situations

One of the important points of the participants’ comments was the situation in which people with a history of living in foster care had to choose, and this compulsion to choose occurred specifically at the time of marriage. One participant described the feeling of compulsion to choose in her life as follows:

As I thought there was no one I could live with, I agreed to marry him in a situation where I seemed to have to, and I thought it was like I had the last chance, but there really was no other way; living for the rest of my life in my father’s mud house or marrying him. Finally, I accepted. (P12)

Another participant says about marrying someone much older and accepting a marriage proposal quickly:

. . . I said to myself, let’s get married, maybe I can’t find a better person. Less than a week after we met, he came and said, “Let’s get married.” Due to my conditions and the hope for better conditions, I jumped into it and we got married very quickly . . . (P4)

Inappropriate interference of others

The results of this study indicate that one of the aspects related to the social pressures of women with a history of residence in foster care centers is the inappropriate interference of others. Participants considered this intervention as any behavior that would control and monitor different aspects of their lives. This intervention was applied to the appearance and style of dress, travel, daily activities, social communication, and personal decisions and choices.

In this regard, one of the participants explains the situation to express the controlling state of her father-in-law as follows:

. . . The first time I saw the situation, I told them I can’t live like this. He had made the house for me like hell; so much, he influenced my husband. He forced us to build a smelly room next to his house and live in it. Well, as the way they behaved, they left us no space for independence, as if we were hitting a roof wherever we wanted to climb . . . (P13)

Social stigma

The results show that another pressure from the community on people with a history of living in foster care centers is the social stigma. Some women who have participated in the research have been stigmatized many times during their lives, and, on the contrary, these stigmas and stereotypes have affected the social relationships of these women.

In the same case, the following participant, who decides to divorce, explained the feeling of being stigmatized by the community as follows:

. . . nothing would be left for me. If I wanted to divorce, people wouldn’t say that perhaps her husband had a problem. They would say she lived in foster care; it’s been that kind of woman. They would say if she was adaptable person, she shall live with her family. People blame us for everything and we are labeled for our past . . . (P7)

Another participant pointed to the feeling of neglect and rejection by her family and described her situation as follows:

. . . they didn’t endure me, but it was clear that I was a misfit for them. Even when they took me to a party to their house, I saw no one, as if they didn’t want anyone to see me be forced to explain who I am. So, they didn’t introduce me to anyone . . . (P1)

Unstable Marital Life

In addition to the pressures of the early period of life as well as the pressures from the social environment on people with a history of living in foster care centers, participants in this study also addressed the challenges within their family life. The unstable marital life category reflects the instability of marital life in this group of individuals and focuses mainly on the challenges of communication with the spouse, the personality traits of the spouses, and the problems within the family. This category consists of four subcategories, including economic problems, domestic violence, poor skills of marital life, and fear of revictimization.

Economic problems

One of the major challenges raised by most participants in this study was their financial needs and economic problems. This financial need had severely affected various parts of the lives of these women, which caused instability in their marital life.

The following participant has been a headless child and her husband has been a headless child too, which highlights the importance of poor economic stability as follows:

. . . We had nothing when we got married. Of course, we have nothing either now. At the beginning, we didn’t have even a thousand Toman spot. There was no one to help us. We didn’t have a good family to help us. Whatever way you think we went so that we could make money to make a living . . . (P6)

In another part of the study, participants pointed to their poor economic strength and the lack of financial support from the family as a factor that made life more difficult for them than usual. In this regard, the following participant, who is one of the headless children and her husband’s economic situation is also poor, describes her life situation as follows:

. . . My husband has neither a house nor much income. At least he should have a house. He just bought a car; he is a driver. He spends whatever he earns on repairing his car. I’m all worried about how we will continue our life in this economic situation . . . (P4)

Domestic violence

One of the most important harms that the research participants have mentioned is violence against the family and women. Violence has different aspects, which have manifested themselves more in terms of physical and emotional violence in the lives of these women. In some participants, this factor led to an emotional coldness in their family life. The following are relevant quotes.

In this regard, a participant has mentioned regarding the experience of violence perpetrated by her husband as follows:

. . . but, well, he’s extremely nervous. He beats me. In addition to his unkindness, I can’t stand he beats me. Everything that happens he throws something at me. Little by little, I am fed up with his life, love, and everything himself. I just don’t want to see him. He killed all the love I’ve had from the past. I was beaten so hard that I didn’t understand anything about living with him anymore, my whole body was bruised [crying] . . . (P8)

Another form of violence was the tolerance of marital infidelity in relationships. One of the participants made significant remarks about the betrayal she experienced from her husband:

. . . he is Casanova. I caught him right in the act several times so far. When I go out of our house for two days, he starts flirting. That’s always the case. I act ignorant because many times I told him that he’s a real Casanova, he told me I’m experiencing hallucinations. But I know he is, once I found something in the house . . . (P15)

Weakness of essential marital life skills

One of the most important challenges in family life, as mentioned by most participants, was the lack of preparation for marital life and the lack of learning the basic skills. This subcategory also exacerbated the conditions for marital life instability.

The following participant is got married to a person from outside the foster care and she expresses about the lack of understanding in her marriage due to the experience of different growth and development conditions:

. . . but neither I understood my husband nor he understood me. It’s like he’s from another world and I’m from another world. Maybe in some places he is right, he doesn’t know and understand at all how much I need his attention. On one hand, I want to fill in all the negligence that I have seen over the years, whatever he was, he was a boy from a family . . . (P10)

In this regard, the following participants have pointed out the weakness of their skills in the face of different life experiences. They cited the lack of learning skills as one of the most important factors in the failure of their life:

. . . Everything we knew was useful for living in our center. We didn’t know anything about what we needed for our life out. We were discharged in this way. We were just thinking that the best life was waiting for us . . . [Laughter] We weren’t taught anything, just said, “It’s time for you to leave.” So, we left there without knowing anything and we were just happy for leaving there . . . (P9)

Fear of revictimization

Fear of revictimization was one of the challenges identified in this research as one of the most important findings by women participating in the research. According to the findings of this study, women have been named as an element of solidarity in the family by the community. In all circumstances, they endure many difficulties in life to maintain the peace of the living environment and the peace of the child and put a lot of pressure on themselves so that the difficult conditions and experiences of their past would not be repeated for their children.

In this regard, the following participant with a child and whose husband also grew up in foster care, said,

. . . Now that I have seen so many problems in life, I had a stepfather and I know what it’s like, I’m willing to sacrifice myself for my child and not get married at all to prevent him experiencing from stepfather. I bear loneliness myself, just Amir Ali doesn’t be like me, like his father grow up in foster care because I was there and I saw how it’s horrible and hard . . . (P1)

On the contrary, these women—despite their willingness to have a child—avoided having a child to prevent their offspring from experiencing their parents’ destiny. The following participant commented on the lack of action for having a child due to economic pressures and problems:

. . . I was a girl who said that I would definitely have a child a year after my marriage. We were interested in having a child, but we didn’t take action because of the pressures and problems we had, that is, we couldn’t take action because we know that the child has no future. He or she would be someone like his or her father or mother without support . . . (P8)

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to explore the life experiences of women with a history of residing in foster care centers. The results indicated that the most important challenge of the family life of these people is an unstable condition in life and a kind of instability in many years after leaving foster care. This life in suspension consists of three main categories of spoiled identity, social pressures, and unstable marital life, which illustrate the challenges that have plagued these people since their birth. The challenges and pressures they face from the social environment and, finally, the challenges that exist in their current family life complete this challenging triangle.

The findings of this study suggest that some of these challenges are rooted in the risk factors that these individuals have experienced and continue to affect in their lives. One of the most important risk factors is the spoiled identity of these people, which is largely rooted in past traumatic experiences, weak social networks, and a lack of readiness to leave foster care and enter into the marital life. Adolescents and youths who are discharged from foster care around the age of 18 spend a specific transition period, which would be different and more complicated in the lives of children who grew up in their families and with their parents compared with the same period. Sturgis et al. (2004) introduced one of the most important goals of foster care as reducing risk factors and increasing protective factors for the lives of children and adolescents so that they can overcome obstacles and become useful adults to themselves and society. The most important of these can be providing the living environment with fewer challenges and conflicts, teaching them different skills, facilitating their education, and supporting extracurricular activities (Bottone, 2018).

In many cases, they cannot receive social and emotional support from social networks like other people, and negative experiences usually emerge in their social relationships because of their vulnerable backgrounds. Consistent with the results of this study and emphasizing the importance of interactions and social networks, Blakeslee (2012) considers the characteristics of these individuals’ social networks, such as size, intensity, trust, and cohesion, as one of the most important factors in the success of foster care postdischarge (Blakeslee, 2012). In a study conducted in India, access to social support and the provision of outpatient and community entry programs were the most important predictors of postdischarge success (Dutta, 2017). Some studies have also pointed to the high risk of social isolation in people leaving health care (Cashmore & Paxman, 2006; Höjer & Sjöblom, 2010).

Stigma and social pressures are other challenges that suspend their marital life. Given the conditions these people have passed and the cultural and social characteristics of Iranian society, girls living in these centers will face further restrictions and difficulties after leaving these centers. They are mostly constrained by choosing a spouse, and therefore their family life after marriage is affected by their background in these centers. Most studies have focused on personality and individual factors, such as education, personality traits, and residential center characteristics on the success of life after leaving foster care (Blakeslee, 2012; Häggman-Laitila et al., 2019). Courtney et al. (2019) evaluated the services provided to this group of people. They concluded that the interventions had a positive impact on their income, jobs, housing, economic problems, and health, but these programs have had no effect on their social support (Courtney et al., 2019). It seems that reducing stigma and social pressures require interventions beyond individual-centered and foster care interventions. In addition to strive to reunify families and use the capacity of social support at the family level, there should be plans to reduce the social stigma of this group at the community and society level. Future research is also suggested to focus on strategies to reduce the social pressure of people with a history of foster care.

The last category extracted from this study is the challenges that weaken the marital bond. Economic problems, fears of child revictimization, and lack of marital life skills are among the intrinsic challenges of studied married women, which emphasize the importance of readiness to enter marriage. One of the programs that has been emphasized in many texts to present to foster care residents is independent living skills, which mainly include skills in education, employment, housing, and health, but do not include programs to enhance marital life skills (Shin, 2009). Given the lack of social support and vulnerable backgrounds in this group, it is important to evaluate existing programs and consider programs to enhance marital life formation skills while living in foster care.

This research is one of the first types that investigated the challenges of family life of people discharged from foster care over a relatively long time after their departure using the qualitative research method and enhances our knowledge about an understudied population. However, this research also had some limitations. One of the major limitations of this study was the difficulty in accessing women who were discharged from foster care. Given the social stigma and unwillingness of some participants, the researchers attempted to overcome this limitation using the capacity of charities and protecting various aspects of privacy. Furthermore, because this research was conducted only on women discharged from long-term foster care centers, further types of research on men and people discharged from other foster care centers are required. The results of this research on these groups should be used with caution. As the experience of these people was process-based, other types of qualitative studies such as grounded theory studies can be used to investigate the leaving process from foster care centers.

Given the results of this research and various challenges that they face after leaving care, there are implications for policy decisions and further researches. Longitudinal and experimental studies highlighting the evaluation of the provided services in foster care centers are an interesting area for future researches. Given the limited amount of information available, research in this area should be a priority. Research studies should also pay more attention to theoretical base for independent living policy, programming, and their evaluation. This attempt can help us to design better interventions to understand the problem and improve our responses on life transition, essential life skills, resilience, and social supports. Also, it seems that there is need to develop policy and programs to support adolescents in their transition.

Footnotes

Disposition editor: David C. Kondrat

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Fardin Alipour

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