IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v103y2019icp42-50.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How do youth in foster care view the impact of traumatic experiences?

Author

Listed:
  • Steenbakkers, Anne
  • van der Steen, Steffie
  • Grietens, Hans

Abstract

Children in family foster care have been disproportionately exposed to traumatic experiences, which contribute to the problems and specific needs they experience. Despite the growing interest in the stories of children in foster care, only a few studies have focused on their lived experiences regarding traumatic events and the resulting impact. The aim of this study was therefore to ask youth themselves how they experience the impact of traumas prior to living in a foster family. Episodic narrative interviews were conducted with 13 youth aged 15–23 (formerly) residing in family foster care in the Netherlands. The interviews were subjected to open coding and organized in themes and sub-themes using thematic analysis. The impact youth experienced from traumas in the past could be grouped in three themes: the experience of emotional and social problems (such as internalizing problems, anger, and loss of bonds), specific strategies to cope with trauma (avoidance, looking for answers, preserving sameness), and not always experiencing impact. The results highlight the clinical problems youth experience, related to posttraumatic stress symptoms and complex trauma. However, youth also indicate strategies they employ to cope with this impact. Interventions for children in foster care with complex trauma should be tailored to the interconnectedness of complex trauma and attachment, and stimulate children's helpful coping strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Steenbakkers, Anne & van der Steen, Steffie & Grietens, Hans, 2019. "How do youth in foster care view the impact of traumatic experiences?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 42-50.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:103:y:2019:i:c:p:42-50
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.05.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740917310551
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.05.026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herrick, Mary Anne & Piccus, Wendy, 2005. "Sibling connections: The importance of nurturing sibling bonds in the foster care system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 845-861, July.
    2. Rebbe, Rebecca & Nurius, Paula S. & Ahrens, Kym R. & Courtney, Mark E., 2017. "Adverse childhood experiences among youth aging out of foster care: A latent class analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 108-116.
    3. Steenbakkers, Anne & van der Steen, Steffie & Grietens, Hans, 2016. "‘To talk or not to talk?’: Foster youth's experiences of sharing stories about their past and being in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 2-9.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elise Barboza, Gia & Valentine, Romello, 2022. "A network analysis of post-traumatic stress among youth aging out of the foster care system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Van Holen, Frank & Clé, Ann & West, Delphine & Gypen, Laura & Vanderfaeillie, Johan, 2020. "Family bonds of foster children. A qualitative research regarding the experience of foster children in long-term foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. Waid, Jeffrey & Kothari, Brianne H. & McBeath, Bowen M. & Bank, Lew, 2017. "Foster home integration as a temporal indicator of relational well-being," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 137-145.
    3. Frida Skog, 2019. "Sibling Effects on Adult Earnings Among Poor and Wealthy Children Evidence from Sweden," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(3), pages 917-942, June.
    4. Richardson, Sabrina M. & Yates, Tuppett M., 2014. "Siblings in foster care: A relational path to resilience for emancipated foster youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 378-388.
    5. Haight, Wendy & Cho, Minhae & Soffer-Elnekave, Ruth & Nashandi, Ndilimeke J.C. & Suleiman, Johara, 2022. "Moral injury experienced by emerging adults with child welfare histories in developmental and sociocultural contexts: “I knew the system was broken.”," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    6. Tomlinson, Camie A. & Shin, Sunny H. & Corso, Casey & Jiskrova, Gabriela Ksinan, 2024. "Patterns of adverse childhood experiences and mental health symptoms among young adults," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Brown, Delphine, 2023. "Childhood experiences, growing up “in care,” and trust: A quantitative analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    8. Tomlinson, Camie A. & McDonald, Shelby E. & Brown, Samantha M. & Shin, Sunny H., 2023. "Exploring dimensions of childhood adversity as predictors of psychological adjustment among adolescents involved in the child welfare system: A latent profile analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    9. Jennifer L. Collins & Laura J. Thomas, 2018. "The influence of social determinants of health among young adults after they have left foster care in the US," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(9-10), pages 2022-2030, May.
    10. Wojciak, Armeda Stevenson & McWey, Lenore M. & Helfrich, Christine M., 2013. "Sibling relationships and internalizing symptoms of youth in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1071-1077.
    11. Zinn, Andrew, 2017. "Predictors of natural mentoring relationships among former foster youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 564-575.
    12. Herbster, Julia M. & Ocasio, Kerrie, 2021. "The complex relationship between sibling contact and child and family well-being in foster care: An exploration of child and family functioning in a pre-permanency cohort," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    13. DiGiovanni, Anna & Font, Sarah A., 2021. "Revisiting conventional wisdom: What do we know from 30 years of research on sibling placement in foster care?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    14. Woodard, Tracey & Copp, Jennifer E., 2016. "Maternal incarceration and children's delinquent involvement: The role of sibling relationships," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 340-348.
    15. Wojciak, Armeda Stevenson & McWey, Lenore M. & Waid, Jeffery, 2018. "Sibling relationships of youth in foster care: A predictor of resilience," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 247-254.
    16. Mota, Catarina Pinheiro & Matos, Paula Mena, 2015. "Does sibling relationship matter to self-concept and resilience in adolescents under residential care?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 97-106.
    17. Melkman, Eran P. & Benbenishty, Rami, 2018. "Social support networks of care leavers: Mediating between childhood adversity and adult functioning," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 176-187.
    18. Shlonsky, Aron & Bellamy, Jennifer & Elkins, Jennifer & Ashare, Caryn J., 2005. "The other kin: Setting the course for research, policy, and practice with siblings in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 697-716, July.
    19. Tregeagle, Susan & Moggach, Lynne & Trivedi, Helen & Ward, Harriet, 2019. "Previous life experiences and the vulnerability of children adopted from out-of-home care: The impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences and child welfare decision making," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 55-63.
    20. McWey, Lenore M. & Cui, Ming, 2021. "More contact with biological parents predicts shorter length of time in out of home care and mental health of youth in the child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:103:y:2019:i:c:p:42-50. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.