Treatment Foster Care Pre-service Trainings: Changes in Parenting Attitudes and Fostering Readiness

Strickler, Amy; Trunzo, Annette C.; Kaelin, Michael S.

doi:10.1007/s10566-017-9418-x

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…One factor that may contribute to higher personal dedication to fostering within our sample is that they have completed an enhanced preservice training teaching a variety of skills to help them in their role as treatment parents. Organizations are realizing the impact that increasing knowledge through ongoing and initial trainings has on employee retention and long-term organization success (Aarons, Sommerfield, Hecht, Silovsky, & Chaffin, 2009), and because of treatment parents' professional status and responsibility, the same patterns might hold true when investing in enhanced trainings for treatment parents. That is, treatment parents who receive enhanced preservice trainings may be more dedicated to fostering as a result of knowledge learned as compared to a normed sample of foster parents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trainers use the PR‐TFC preservice training manual and parents also receive a manual with training content, homework, and reading assignments. PR‐TFC's preservice training is a competency‐based programme rooted in social learning theory, behaviourism, and therapeutic alliance (Strickler et al, ; Burge, ). The underlying beliefs of the training focus on treatment parents as change agents for youth in their care, having an understanding that youth's behaviour can change, and relying on treatment parents to teach youth the skills necessary for effective living.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The underlying beliefs of the training focus on treatment parents as change agents for youth in their care, having an understanding that youth's behaviour can change, and relying on treatment parents to teach youth the skills necessary for effective living. Previous research on PR‐TFC's preservice training (Strickler et al, ) has shown prospective treatment parents have significantly increased licensing rates and positive changes in their attitudes about parenting youth in more domains than the basic preservice training (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting). However, both training groups did not change significantly in their fostering readiness at the end of the training.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trainers use the PR-TFC preservice training manual and parents also receive a manual with training content, homework, and reading assignments. PR-TFC's preservice training is a competency-based programme rooted in social learning theory, behaviourism, and therapeutic alliance (Strickler et al, 2017;Burge, 2006…”

Section: Preservice Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to their therapeutic responsibilities and professional roles, treatment parents typically receive additional compensation and enhanced training in behavioural techniques to develop therapeutic skills and ongoing support in order to increase their dedication and efficacy in helping youth with emotional and behavioural issues (Chamberlain & Mihalic, ; Dorsey et al, ). Although empirical research on the efficacy and effectiveness of preservice trainings specifically designed for treatment parents in achieving improvements on important outcomes like fostering readiness is growing (Strickler, Trunzo, & Kaelin, ()), there remain significant gaps in the literature, particularly in regard to the lasting effects of preservice trainings. Though some foster care organizations are collecting data on and seeing the benefits of using preservice trainings in changing attitudes towards fostering (Murray, Culver, Farmer, Jackson, & Rixon, ), this practice of data collection, particularly after child placement, is the exception rather than the norm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Examining fostering readiness in treatment parents

Strickler¹,

Mihalo²,

Celedonia³

et al. 2018

Child & Family Social Work

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Preservice trainings have the potential to improve treatment parent and youth outcomes, yet researchers have noted the lack of empirical research on the effectiveness of these trainings. Preservice outcomes are typically collected immediately after training completion, with little to no follow‐up assessments at other time points. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal changes treatment parents experience throughout preservice training and after a youth is placed in their home. Secondary data analyses were performed on an archival data set (N = 57) that included demographic information and training participant scores from two standardized measurements that examined their fostering readiness before and after preservice trainings as well as after a youth was placed in the home: Personal Dedication to Fostering Scale and Willingness to Foster Scale. Analyses revealed significant changes for treatment parents' personal dedication to fostering, but no significant changes for their willingness to foster. Treatment parents' fostering readiness scores were compared to a normed sample of foster parents and were found to be significantly higher for their personal dedication scores but not for their willingness to foster. The findings suggest certain treatment parent outcomes may change as a result of preservice training and experience with youth, but additional measurements and outcomes should be examined.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Preservice Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Examining fostering readiness in treatment parents

Strickler¹,

Mihalo²,

Celedonia³

et al. 2018

Child & Family Social Work

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Prevention of Instability in Foster Care: A Case File Review Study

Konijn¹,

Colonnesi

Kroneman

et al. 2020

Child Youth Care Forum

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Background Stability in foster care is paramount, since it enables children with a history of maltreatment to experience secure attachment relationships, and decreases the risk for behavioral and emotional problems when growing up. Objective We investigated whether foster care interventions play a role in enhancing foster placement stability, in addition to several characteristics of foster children and foster families. Our hypothesis was that foster children of female gender, relatively young at start of the placement, with less previous foster care placements, staying in kinship care, placed with siblings (if they had any) and in a foster family receiving a training to enhance the foster parents' knowledge on childhood trauma, an attachment-based video-interaction intervention or Treatment Foster Care, would experience significantly less breakdown in foster care. Method A multilevel analysis was conducted on data from 2000 foster care placements in a 4 year period (2015-2018), concerning 1316 foster families (35.9% kin) and 1542 foster children (49.4% boys, M age = 7.54 years). Results The frequency of previous foster care placements (OR = 3.56) increased the risk for breakdown, and receiving the Basic Trust intervention (OR = 0.26) or Treatment Foster Care (OR = 0.11) decreased that risk. Other investigated variables were unrelated to breakdown when checked for the number of foster placements and the applied interventions. Conclusions Foster care organizations should systematically monitor important risk factors for breakdown, in order to (timely) intervene if necessary to enhance the chances for continuity of foster care placements. Treatment seems to make a difference.

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