Strijker, Johan <br/><br/>
Validation of a Questionnaire for the Assessment of Foster Mothers in the Netherlands 

 -  2010.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> This study was designed to assess the validity of the Dutch version of a program developed in the United States for the standardized assessment of foster parents in order to improve foster care. Assessing foster parents in the Netherlands has become crucial because of new requirements of foster care, specifically, children with behavioral problems, who previously had remained in institutional care, and the need for collaboration between foster parents and the birth parents. New items were added to the CHAP questionnaire (Orme &amp; al., 2004) and here we present data obtained from 121 foster mothers’ responses. The results show that there were no significant differences between the Dutch and the American mothers’ motivations, but there were differences in the characteristics of the foster families and in their expectations. The results can be used to improve the match of children with foster families and to find out what kind of support is needed. However, some adaptations have to be made to the assessment program in order to make it more relevant to the Dutch context.