Identifying the essential competencies for resource parents to promote permanency and well-being of adolescents in care

Abstract

The number of teens entering foster care and those subsequently aging out, has been steadily increasing in recent years. The majority of these teens experience placement instability while in care and do not secure permanency before entering young adulthood. These adolescents often have complex needs due to trauma histories, and as a result, many of these youth struggle with unemployment, homelessness, and incarceration, and they experience chronic physical and mental health challenges as young adults. There has been limited training available to prepare resource parents to care for adolescents who have experienced chronic trauma. The current study is the first phase of a national training and development initiative to maximize placement stability and permanency of traumatized teens placed in out-of-home care. The purpose of the current study is to identify the core competencies that are deemed essential for resource parents to be successful, and then prioritize the competencies that should be included in the training.Utilizing the Delphi method, the current study generated a comprehensive list of competencies through multiple types of data collection procedures (e.g., interviews, surveys) and sources (e.g., parents, older youth, professionals, and literature and curricula reviews). Subsequently, the competencies were prioritized for inclusion in a national training by administering two rounds of a survey to an expert panel who ranked their importance. The inclusion of the competencies in the training was based on two criteria: competencies with a minimum mean score of at least 4, and those which 75% of the panelists rated at 4 or higher. Of the 215 non-duplicative competencies generated in Round One, the panelists reached consensus for inclusion of 61 in training development. Many of them focused on trauma-informed parenting, building a trusting relationship with youth, helping youth maintain a connection with their biological family and other past supportive relationships, emotional regulation skills for the parent and youth, and how to adapt to meet the youths' unique needs.