THE ROLE OF FOSTER CARERS' BIOLOGICAL CHILDREN DURING THE FOSTER CARE PROCESS: "WE ALL HAVE BECOME THEIR CARERS, TEACHERS, MOTHERS AND FATHERS"

Only a narrow spectrum of issues faced by foster families are being addressed in Lithuania: these are issues such as the quality of foster child's living surroundings, relationships between a foster child and the carers. But in a foster family there may also be growing-up biological children, which voice isn't enough heard. Goal of the article - to reveal the experiences of biological children whose family fosters a child, emphasizing the role of foster carer's children during the foster care process. The phenomenological qualitative research, made by author, has shown what impact on biological children has a child's foster care; what and in what ways changes occur in the family after the coming of a foster child; how biological children communicate with the foster child, and what roles they assume during the child's foster care process. This has been the first research in Lithuania with a goal to provide a deeper understanding of this phenomenon from the very own perspective of biological children.