Foster carer's day-to-day experiences of happiness

Foster and kinship carers form the backbone of Australia’s framework for the protection of vulnerable children who are unable to live safely at home (Australian Government Department of Social Services, DoSS, 2011). Despite this acknowledgement of the importance of their role, caring for these at-risk children, many of whom present with complex emotional and behavioural challenges (DoSS, 2022) is taking a toll on carer’s mental health and wellbeing. For example, studies in both the UK and the USA have revealed foster caring resulting in compassion fatigue, also known as secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma (Ottaway & Selwyn 2016; Bridger et al., 2020; Whitt-Woosley et al., 2020). In Australia too, there is evidence of high stress, low wellbeing, compassion fatigue and both vicarious and primary trauma (e.g., Blythe et al., 2014; Harding et al., 2020; Riggs, 2021). Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW, 2022a) reveals over 13% of carers have been exiting the system each year for the last 9 years of reporting, and in some years the number leaving has been greater than the number commencing (AIHW, 2022b). Whilst the system can and should be improved to better support foster carers it is inescapable that living with, and caring for, children with complex mental health conditions will be an everpresent risk-factor challenging the wellbeing of carers. It is therefore of interest to understand foster carer happiness and wellbeing, the factors that promote their retention, and resilience, in the face of hardship. There has been limited research into foster carer wellbeing (Hannah & Woolgar, 2018) and only one study has been located that has applied a positive psychology framework to the topic: the scoping review by Stephan (2021). Since positive psychology is the study of human happiness and wellbeing it seems fitting to explore foster parent wellbeing from within this paradigm. The present study will be situated within this theoretical framework where there is a gap in the research. Positive psychology research has shown that happiness is a multidimensional construct involving both pleasure and meaning. For example, Seligman’s PERMA framework (2018) models the building blocks of wellbeing as comprising experiences of positive emotions, engagement in skilled, intrinsically-motivated activity, strong relationships, a sense of meaning or purpose in life, and a sense of achievement. This exploratory, qualitative study will explore foster parent happiness in this full sense of the word, i.e., across the multiple domains of wellbeing. It will explore aspects of the carer’s day-to-day lives that promote not only a sense of meaning, purpose, and achievement, but also generate positive emotions such as cheerfulness, joy, optimism and contentment. It will investigate whether carers perceive these as fundamental to their resilience. Understanding the positive, as well as the negative, aspects of carer’s lived experience can inform policy, practice, and future research and is also consistent with the current move towards the integration of positive psychology with traditional psychological approaches (e.g., Johnson & Wood, 2017). This dataset contains sensitive information that cannot be published. To discuss the data, please contact Nicole Peel ORCID 0000-0003-0806-1230