Trauma Foster Care

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Journal Article Summary This summary is concerned with the article “Prior Trauma Exposure for Youth in Treatment Foster Care” by Dorsey et al. It was published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies in 2012. The original article describes Dorsey et al.’s research study on the level of exposure to trauma in youth living in treatment foster care as well as implications of such exposure for behavioral and emotional functioning in this population. While previous research has had similar research questions and hypothesis, most studies included participants living in traditional foster care or residential setting. Since treatment, or therapeutic, foster care combines child care approaches from both traditional foster care as well as more …show more content…
820). Since the exposure has been linked to increased emotional and behavioral problems, it is not surprising that trauma exposure appears to be higher in TFC families when compared to traditional foster families. Past and present research studies have often failed to take parent death or incarceration into consideration but mainly focused on trauma resulting from the active experience of abuse and/or neglect (Dorsey et al., 2012, p. 820-821). The authors found that TFC parents were not as familiar with the youths’ history of exposure to trauma which is alarming considering that TFC parents are responsible for providing treatments to the youths (Dorsey et al., 2012, p. 821). Not being informed on the actual history, particularly sexual abuse and domestic violence, may interfere with the effectiveness of treatments (Dorsey et al., 2012, p. 821). As a result, improving the communication between the TFC parents and the responsible agencies is encouraged (Dorsey et al., 2012, p. …show more content…
820). This study could potentially inspire a multitude of future research studies concerned with the well-being of youths in TFC. While Dorsey et al.’s study gave valuable insight into the current state of youths in TFC, longitudinal research should be concerned with outcome of youths exiting the TFC system. Since TFC, unlike traditional foster care, introduces treatments to youths, the behavioral and emotional outcome of these youths should be better than that of youth exiting the traditional foster care system. However, since the latter usually show fewer behavioral or emotional problems than those in TFC, it would be interesting to study how both populations compare to each other. Another future research study should be concerned with the generalizability of the results. Specifically, since only 33% of participants were identified as “white”, yet the results focus mainly on the outcomes of white youth, it would be valuable to try to replicate the results in a group of male and female TFC youths focusing on minority groups rather than Caucasian youths. No matter the direction future research may take, any study on this particular population within the greater foster care system contributes to the better understanding of effective
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