Trauma-Informed Parenting Interventions in Child Welfare: A Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Child Welfare
• Psychology
• Social Work

Background:

• Growing awareness of trauma's impact necessitates trauma-informed practices in child welfare.
• Parent training is crucial for supporting children and families within this system.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review exploring the application of trauma-informed parent training programs within the child welfare system.
• To identify how these programs are utilized to support families involved in child welfare.

Main Methods:

• Included English-language studies representing global interventions.
• Focused on trauma-informed approaches for caregivers/parents in child welfare.
• Identified 24 relevant studies for review.

Main Results:

• Most studies targeted foster/resource parents to address child trauma symptoms.
• Four studies focused on birth parents, addressing their trauma and parenting.
• Significant improvements in child and parent variables were observed across studies.

Conclusions:

• Trauma-informed parent training is an expanding field, with most research emerging in the last 5-7 years.
• The review provides valuable information for interventions aiming to support child welfare families through a trauma-informed lens.
• This scoping review demonstrates the potential of trauma-informed parent training in child welfare.