engleski

Stress of children in public care in Croatia: Implication for social workers

Life of a child in public care is burdened with a history of traumatic and stress events in the primary family, affecting his/her psychosocial health. Everyday life in public care (residential or foster) requires additional adjustment to new and unknown social situations. Therefore the goal of this study is to explore how children in public care cope with daily hassles and stress. A longitudinal study (5 years between follow-up) was conducted with 139 children placed in public care (child homes and foster families). The research was completed in 2007. At the first study the children were 12.65 years old in average and 17.71 years at the follow-up study. Number of boys (69) and girls (70) was equal. In order to establish the level of stress and investigate how do children respond three questioners were used: Child Home Everyday Stress Questionnaire (Ajdukovic i Sladovic, 1999), Stress Response Questionnaire (Arambashic and assoc., 2000) and List of family stresses and prior traumatic events in the primary family (Sladovic, 1999). Results show differences between first and follow-up study. Everyday stress level and the number of stress and traumatic events connected with the primary family declined. In follow-up we observed a smaller number of emotional incidents and the attitude of evasion is less noted. It is interesting that children request for social support in stress situations is also less evident. The differences in the quantity of stress events and ways to respond to them in respect to gender and type of placement will be discussed.

stress; children in public care

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