Kinship and Foster Caregivers' Perspectives on the Need to Tailor Parenting Programs: A Qualitative Study

Children in foster and kinship care are more likely than children in the general population to express behavior problems that disrupt their relationships with caregivers and impact their ability to successfully engage in social interactions. Simultaneously, services designed to address behavior problems are often not delivered until problems emerge, contributing to increased risk for placement disruptions and more behavior challenges. Prevention programs designed to reduce behavior problems through enhanced parent-child relationships have robust evidence to support effectiveness, but many are not tailored for foster and kinship care. The purpose of this study was to describe the perspectives of foster and kinship caregivers about their experience receiving a prevention program designed for traditional parent-child dyads, The Chicago Parent Program. Five caregivers (3 females, 2 males), including 3 kinship and 2 licensed foster caregivers, completed 11 sessions prior to an interview to discuss their perspectives and how the intervention influenced their perceptions, skills, stress, and observations of disruptive and problematic behaviors with the children in their care. Caregivers reported perspectives that aligned with three general themes: aspects of content generalizable to foster and kinship care, implementation and structure improvements, and content that required tailoring for foster and kinship care contexts. These findings point to the important need to tailor parenting programs for specific subgroups of caregivers to ensure services are inclusive, available, and accessible to families of children who are most likely to benefit from these programs and services.