Related Experiment Videos
Children's behavioral health needs and satisfaction and commitment of foster and adoptive parents: Do trauma-informed
Erin R Barnett1, Sarah E Cleary1, Rebecca L Butcher2
1Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Research Center, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Dartmouth- Hitchcock Medical Center.
Insights
Trauma-informed mental health services can buffer foster parents from the stress of children's behavioral health needs, improving parent satisfaction and commitment. Trauma-informed child welfare services did not show this buffering effect.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Family Studies
- Trauma-Informed Care
Background:
- Parenting children in foster or adoptive care with behavioral health needs presents significant challenges.
- These challenges can negatively impact child and family well-being.
- Trauma-informed services aim to mitigate these effects by addressing trauma's impact.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if trauma-informed services in child welfare and mental health moderate the link between children's behavioral health needs and parent satisfaction/commitment.
- Specifically examining the role of these services for foster and adoptive parents.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional statewide survey of 512 foster and adoptive parents.
- Data analyzed to assess the moderating effects of trauma-informed services.
Main Results:
- Trauma-informed mental health services significantly buffered foster parents, reducing the negative association between child behavioral health needs and parent satisfaction/commitment.
- This buffering effect was not observed for adoptive parents.
- Trauma-informed child welfare services did not demonstrate a moderating effect for either group.
Conclusions:
- Promoting trauma-informed mental health services is recommended to support foster parents' satisfaction and commitment.
- Further research is needed to confirm these findings and explore effects on other child and family outcomes.
Objective:
Caring for children in foster or adoptive care with behavioral health needs can severely stress parents, contributing to adverse outcomes for children and families. Trauma-informed services from the child welfare and mental health sectors may help prevent poor outcomes by helping children and parents identify and understand trauma and its impact on children's behavioral health and receive effective treatment. To help understand the role of trauma-informed services for the child welfare population, we examined whether trauma-informed child welfare and mental health services moderated the relationship between children's behavioral health needs and parent satisfaction and commitment.
Method:
The researchers analyzed data from a cross-sectional statewide survey of foster and adoptive parents (n = 512 respondents, 42% of 1,206 contacted) from one state.
Results:
Foster (but not adoptive) parent ratings of trauma-informed mental health services significantly moderated the relationship between children's behavioral health needs and foster and adoptive parent satisfaction and commitment. As ratings of trauma-informed mental health services increased, the association between child behavioral health needs and parent satisfaction and commitment became nonsignificant, suggesting a buffering effect. Trauma-informed child welfare services did not moderate the relationship for foster or adoptive parents.
Conclusions:
Leaders and policymakers are urged to promote trauma-informed mental health services for children involved with child welfare to potentially buffer foster parents against lower parenting satisfaction and commitment. More research is needed to replicate and expand on these findings and to examine the effectiveness of trauma-informed services on other relevant child and family outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).