Family narratives on fostering a child with a history of sexual abuse

The impact of a history of sexual abuse on foster families has been studied, although never from a multilevel family perspective. Therefore, in Project Iris narratives are collected on the expertise, needs and experiences of... [ view full abstract ]

The impact of a history of sexual abuse on foster families has been studied, although never from a multilevel family perspective. Therefore, in Project Iris narratives are collected on the expertise, needs and experiences of family members in foster families concerning the care for a child with a history of sexual abuse previous to placement in the foster family.

The study includes the voices of foster parents, biological children of foster parents (9 to 17 years old and 18 to 25 years old) and foster children (9 to 17 years old). The narratives of 17 foster parents and 10 biological children of age were collected through several episodic interviews. An activity book containing narrative eliciting activities was used to collect the voices of 2 biological and 2 foster children below the age of 16. After doing an inductive thematic analysis, we created a synthesis of the narrative for each individual participant. The various individual syntheses of members of the same family are reviewed on a comparative base, resulting in a “family narrative”.

Comparing the different individual accounts, we found family members to speak from their particular position within the family (parent-position or the child-position). However, the participants do not limit their narratives focusing on themselves, as a great part of the individual narratives contains a reflection on the impact on the family as a unit. Furthermore, the experienced impact is affected by the interpersonal connections between the family members. For instance, foster parents and their biological children speak of the strain on themselves, however, seeing the other family members struggle is possibly even harder than one’s own struggles. Results on the level of the individual narratives as well as on the family level will be presented.

Studying the impact of fostering a child with a history of sexual abuse from a family perspective adds to our understanding of the complexity of the topic, as the family dynamics are taken into account. The knowledge gained in Project Iris will be used to professionalize and strengthen foster families as well as optimize the care for foster children with an abuse history. In the future, the key findings of this study will contribute to the development of an e-toolkit for foster families and their network.