Adolescent Mothers in Foster Care: Relational Ethics, Depressive Symptoms and Health Problems Through a Contextual Therapy Lens

Abstract

This is the first study that provides empirical support for the importance of contextual theory notions of relational ethics for the well-being of adolescent mothers in the foster care system. Data came from a sample of 42 adolescent mothers in kinship and non-kinship foster families and included self-reports on the Relational Ethics Scale. As it was hypothesized, adolescent mothers in kinship placement reported a significantly higher degree of relational ethics (perception of trust, fairness and loyalty) in their foster family and lower levels of depressive symptoms than adolescent mothers in non-kinship placement. Regardless of the placement type, family relational ethics correlated negatively with a level of depressive and physical health symptoms. Findings support an idea that relational ethics may be particularly relevant to clinical work with adolescents in the foster care system because the duality of having biological and foster families may create feelings of injustice and split loyalty.