CHILD IN THE REINTEGRATION PROCESS: PREDICTORS OF SUCCESSFUL FAMILY REUNIFICATION WITH CHILDREN IN RESPECTIVE TYPES OF FOSTER CARE FAMILIES

<ns3:p>One of the most important duties of modern societies towards children, is to ensure their right to grow up in a safe family environment – preferably in their own family. This universal value governs the organization of the Polish care system, the foundation of which is the temporary care of a child deprived of proper living conditions in their own family. The aim of child’s stay in foster care is to serve the purpose of rebuilding the stability of the family and returning it to the child, or – should this prove impossible – regulating the child’s legal situation and initiating the adoption procedure.The research intends is to identify and define factors directly related to the child placed in family foster care and the foster families themselves, which are important for the effectiveness of the implementation of the process of restoring the child’s own family. The study covered 1,482 children growing up in foster families in the province of Silesia, who in 2015-2019, returned to the care of their own families.The study provides a better understanding of the factors related to a child in family foster care which impacts the effectiveness of the implementation of the reintegration process. Research results indicate that the type of foster family in which the child was placed is important for the implementation of the reintegration process. On the other hand, pursuing family reunification too quickly poses the risk of unsustainable reintegration. The experience of being separated again from one’s own family and placed in foster care affect almost one in four children. The study also showed that variables related to the child in family foster care, have a statistically significant impact on the effectiveness of the implementation of the reintegration process.</ns3:p>