Biological Parents in the Foster Care System: The Role of Intergenerational Trauma
2023
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Biological Parents in the Foster Care System: The Role of Intergenerational Trauma
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2023
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Over 400,000 children and their families are part of the United States foster care system. This system has been designed to provide a temporary place for children to live when it has been determined that it is not safe to live with their biological families. There is a large body of literature on the foster care system. Little of this research, however, has focused on the experiences of biological parents. Perceptions of biological parents as choosing to be intentionally abusive and/or neglectful has created stigma that potentially has influenced their experiences and could contribute to the paucity of literature on their experiences. Research has documented generational links in the foster care system, current parents of children in foster care were often once children in foster care themselves, thus indicating that maltreatment can be generationally transmitted from parents to children. Parents have acknowledged generational parental maltreatment and a desire to break cycles of maltreatment. This qualitative dissertation, guided by family systems theory, aims to explore biological parents’ experiences, and uncover how intergenerational trauma experiences have impacted them, their relationships, their experience with the foster care system, and their need for support. In study one, I examine parents’ experiences with intergenerational trauma, their relationships with their parents, and what they are doing to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma for their children. In study two, I explore biological parents’ relationships with foster caregivers and child welfare system caseworkers, their experiences with relative foster caregivers, and their perceptions of support. These two studies provide an understanding of how family systems theory can be used to understand the experience of biological parents, and advocate for a child welfare system that operates on a trauma informed and empathetic approach to supporting biological parents.
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University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. 2023. Major: Family Social Science. Advisors: Lindsey Weiler, Armeda Wojciak. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 165 pages.
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Tomfohrde, Olivia. (2023). Biological Parents in the Foster Care System: The Role of Intergenerational Trauma. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/257047.
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