The impact of sexual abuse on children is enormous, particularly when a child is abused sexually by a mother figure. In order to gain insight into the experiences of this rarely studied group, the life stories of four foster mothers of victims of maternal sexual abuse were collected. The narratives were coded inductively, and several topics concerning foster motherhood were studied more in-depth. Four key themes emerged in the women's narratives: their attitude towards the abusing female, the foster child's sexual behaviour towards the foster mother, the emotional and physical distance of the foster mothers towards their foster child, and lastly, their sense of responsibility. The four foster mothers continuously balance between fostering their foster child as a parent and responding as a professional caregiver. The consequences of being a foster mother of a victim of maternal sexual abuse should be more socially acknowledged. KEYWORDSchild sexual abuse, foster care, maternal sexual abuse, narrative research, parental identity, professional identity 1 | INTRODUCTION "Because she reacted to me like that, I always felt that she learned that behavior from her mother," a foster mother told us, reflecting on her foster child's behaviour. As this girl, 10 years of age, showed sexualized behaviour to her as a female, this foster mother believed the girl had been abused by her biological mother. Her comment illustrates the complicated position women may have in fostering a victim of maternal sexual abuse.According to McLeod (2015), female offenders are far more likely to abuse their own children than men, as almost 80% of the offending women in his study were listed as the victim's parent. Also, women seem more inclined to offend against young children than male offenders. Although the consequences for all child victims of sexual abuse are grave, the abuse is experienced as severe particularly when victims are strongly familiar with the perpetrator, for example, when the offender is a child's mother (Young, Riggs, & Robinson, 2011).Next to physical intrusiveness, force by someone well known to the victim makes child sexual abuse "a frightening, shameful and isolating experience" (p. 384). Tsopelas, Tsetsou, Ntounas, and Douzenis (2012) note that children are overwhelmed with conflicting feelings of hate and love, especially when they hold a close (familial) relation to the abusers. When a child is sexually abused by a mother figure, the child is denied the feeling that their mother, one of the most important primary attachment figures, is safe (Etherington, 1997;Peter, 2006). Consequently, as a child's abuse experience colours the perception of people in their world being trustworthy (McFadden, 1989), a foster child with a history of maternal sexual abuse may perceive a foster mother as potentially threatening.In general, foster mothers hold a traditionally gendered role in the fostering process, meaning they are considered to be the homemakers or main carers (Heslop, 2014). This seems especially true when a fam...

This exploratory study reports on foster children's informal self-disclosures of previously unknown histories of sexual abuse. Data were collected from 40 children's files, and an inductive thematic analysis of verbal and behavioral expressions was conducted. Findings suggest that foster children's self-disclosures can be fragmented, spontaneous, narrative, or triggered and often occur during everyday activities in the foster family. The children disclose their past by referring to the perpetrator or the severity of the abuse or by acting out, mostly by reenacting sexual abuse experiences. In addition, some children use childish vocabulary focusing on genitals or sexual acts they were involved in or want to be involved in. Last, some foster children seem to be linguistically challenged to disclose that a female person abused them or that they were forced to reciprocate sexually. This study adds to the understanding of the complex process of child sexual abuse disclosure in the context of foster care.