THE FOSTER FAMILY SERVICE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HOST CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

This research aims at understanding the perception of nine to eleven-year old children who belong to foster family cores, emphasizing the educational processes they go through during the beginning and ending of the hosting experience. The paper responds to the growing numbers in implementation of host family services, which is a modality that functions as an alternative the institutionalization of children and adolescents who have had their rights violated and therefore need to be put away from family life. Methodologically, the research developed focal groups with the host children and adolescents. Theoretically, the concept of meaning core and the perspective of Socio-historical Psychology guided the analysis. Results show that the hosting experience contributes to the formation of the host children and adolescents and are important to their development as human beings, since it provides new meanings to their existence.