Archakova. [Environmental approach to working with substitute families in the United States and Europe]

Abstract:
The article provides the review of contemporary practice in using ecological approach to work with foster families: investigation of peculiarities of their functioning and provision of social and psychological support. The issues of social support and facilitation of communication between the three main stakeholders — biological families, foster families and social workers — are discussed at the exosystemic level. The mesosystemic level is represented with the analysis of the issues of kinship care and provision of continuity in a child's life in the context of non-kinship care. Chronosystem is described as dynamic changes at all the levels of functioning: from child welfare reforms to a child's ontogenetic development.