Published: 2025-10-17

Foster care – historical and contemporary perspectives

Piotr Dzieduszyński

Abstract

The problem of taking care of orphaned or abandoned children arises in all cultures, epochs and social systems. Providing foster care to those children has been a universally recognized obligation of the community. Initially, the care of an orphaned child was not institutionalized and abandoned children remained under the charge of individuals or families. In Europe, it was only in the 13th century that the Catholic Church began to create the first care institutions. Over time, state and social organizations played an increasing role. Since that time, both family-based forms of care as well as institutionalizedones have operated side by side. Over centuries, efforts (not always successful) have been made to improve the functioning of these care provisions as well as of the education and methods of care used in them. Nowadays in Poland, there is a dispute over the models of foster care provision which, in a simplified way, involves supporters of preserving only family-based forms of care and practitioners and theoreticians for whom only the maintenance of the institutional forms makes sense. The aim of this paper is to put the current discourse concerning the shape of foster care in a wider historical context. Most analyses of the situation of children uncared for by their parents focus on its present state, and hardly any take a historical perspective, which might provide examples of  good practices related to the care of orphaned children as well as a number of actions undertaken in the past which in our times should be regarded as instances of malpractice. This article also discusses various forms of foster care and how these forms affect the psychophysical development of children. The findings suggest that the family-oriented forms of care reduce the risk of psychological, emotional or social issues less.

Keywords:

children’s homes, family-based care, foster care, institutional care, orphanage

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Dzieduszyński, P. (2025). Foster care – historical and contemporary perspectives. Advances in Educational Psychology, 64(22), 31–50. https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0015.7009

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