Research questions

Growing up in a foster family is not easy for children. Project BOP aims to describe the psychosocial need of foster children from their perspective. A lot of research focusses on the problems of this group, but we believe that looking through a ‘needs-perspective’ lens provides a more holistic view.

This knowledge will assist foster parents and foster care professionals in meeting the needs of foster children, and provide children with the best developmental opportunities. Not much research has been conducted thus far about this theme. In addition, research findings suggest that there is a considerable group of foster children who experienced sexual abuse prior to placement. This can have severe consequences for a child and into adulthood, such as trauma related problems, but it is not known how this might impact their needs.

The main research question is:

“What are the needs of foster children and what impact does sexual abuse prior to placement have on these needs?”

This main question is divided into several specific questions:

• Which (combination of) needs do children who lived in foster care have?
• Are there differences between children with and without a history of abuse regarding their needs? If so, what are these differences?
• How can a foster family meet the needs of foster children?
• What other ways are there to meet the needs of foster children?

These questions will be answered from the perspectives of former foster youth, as they are the ones who experienced the needs. Hearing their voice is a central aspect of this project.