Long-Distance Mothers' Foster Care Types, Separation Anxiety, and Guilt in Foster Care

주말부모 어머니의 자녀양육실태, 격리불안과 죄책감

The purpose of this study was to find out the characteristics of foster care of long-distance parents who meet their children on weekend and to examine the relationships among the separation anxiety and maternal guilt in foster care. The subject consisted of 138 employed mothers who are living separately with their children. The instruments used for this study were the Separation Anxiety Scale(Cho & Park,1992), the Maternal Guilt Scale(Kim & Kang, 1997), the Parental Satisfaction Scale(Hyun & Cho,1994), and the Parental Stress Scale(Park,1994). The main results of this study were as followings: 1. Mothers had a tend to rely on family members expecially grandparents for foster care of their children. They usually have visited to meet their children weekend and made a phone call once a day. Parental satisfaction in foster care was reported to be moderately high level. 2. The subject’s separation anxiety was found to be high, and it was strong positive relationships to maternal guilt feeling in foster care. The results of this study have implications for both formal and informal support systems of employed mothers with children. The findings of this study may used as basis for understanding long-distance parents’problems in foster care, developing support programs, and public policy for employed mothers.