Reasons to care: Personal motivation as a key factor in the practice of the professional foster carer in Romania

Personal motivation is a key factor in the service of foster care, impending both on the welfare of the child and on the satisfaction of the carer. This paper explores the benefits, challenges and dilemmas involved in the job of professional (i.e. state-supported) foster carer in Romania-a country where the issue of child protection has drawn a great deal of international attention over the last thirty years. The principal hypothesis concerns...