麻豆淫院

The important work of foster care needs to be reflected in more support for caregivers in critical areas, including for caregivers who might face frequent violence from their children. New research led by Flinders University investigates difficult questions around making physical and verbal abuse of caregivers by children in out-of-home care a form of family and domestic violence.

"Describing children's behavior as abusive is uncomfortable, but necessary to examine the personal and sociocultural factors underpinning it," says Professor of Psychology Damien Riggs, from the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University.

"Australian foster and kinship caregivers often feel unheard, and feel forced to be compliant with their own vicarious traumatization."

In many families, adolescents and young people trying to assert themselves may lash out against their parents, occasionally leading to intentional harms by children to their parents. In children in foster care, this behavior may be aggravated by trauma and other complex experiences in their past.

"We don't want to focus on the individuals but on the surrounding potential for this kind of family and domestic violence in foster homes, and shape support and advice for foster families accordingly," says Professor Riggs.

The extent of parental abuse includes figures suggesting that parental abuse occurs in 7% to 18% of two-parent families in the U.S., with rates higher in single-parent families and for families where there are gender differences between children and parents (with violence by boys towards their mothers being especially high).

In Australia, two-thirds of children who are removed into care due to abuse or neglect are placed in long-term care with foster or kinship caregivers. live in out-of-home care.

But what happens when foster or kinship caregivers face abuse from young people? Who do they turn to in the child protection systems, particularly when children in their care counterclaim they are victims?

"These areas should be further investigated to make sure both the children鈥攁nd those parenting them鈥攁re equally supported and looked after in our foster and kinship care systems," says Professor Riggs, lead author of a series of new academic journal articles on the topic.

Two of the articles, published in the journals and , interviewed 28 foster caregivers about their experiences with violence in the home to assess what more could be done to provide better protection and structural support in foster care families.

Strategies included giving caregivers insights into recognizing and minimizing parental abuse and understanding triggers in order to mitigate abuse and avoid escalation in abusive behavior. Setting barriers and conciliation interventions may also help.

Overall, researchers stress that foster caregiver systems should implement increased accountability and transparency of all processes so parents don't themselves end up traumatized by strict state regulations and the system itself.