Social well-being of children without parental care: between biological and foster family

The article provides an overview of modern foreign empirical studies that explore the influence of contacts of biological parents with children placed in a foster family on the social well-being of the latter. The opinions of the main participants involved in the organization, support, control, and the direct process of communication between biological parents and foster children are analyzed. The paper reveals a conflict of interests of the parties, which causes ambivalence and ambiguity of their attitude to the interaction process. Contradictory data obtained by researchers in different countries indicate the complexity of the problem due to the subjective nature of decision-making, the lack of legal regulation of the issue in a number of countries, unclearly developed criteria for assessing the situation, and the need for further scientific research on this problem. Importantly, the decision-making process, on the one hand, should not destroy the delicate balance of relations between members of the foster family, and, on the other hand, is supposed to enhance the participation of biological parents in the lives of their own children in the short and medium term, to create conditions and prerequisites for the continuation of their constructive interaction for a potential reunion after the child reaches the age of majority. It is concluded that there are no clearly developed criteria for assessing the situation, the paper notes the fuzziness of the legal framework, subjectivity in decision-making, and the need for further study of the problem in order to find effective technologies for solving it.