True ambivalence: Child welfare workers' thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about kinship foster care

Abstract

Despite generally positive research findings on kinship placement, rates of kinship foster care have risen only modestly. Because workers' thoughts and attitudes may influence their placement decisions, this article presents a content analysis of child welfare workers' responses during kinship foster care training. The analysis reveals that workers simultaneously have strong positive feelings toward kinship foster care along with negative reactions related to the greater time consumed by kinship foster care placements, the frequent difficulty of dealing with triangulation, the lack of clear and coherent policy regarding work with kin, and a resulting increased feeling of risk. These results extend and amplify prior findings. For example, prior studies have noted workers' difficulties with the frequently complicated family dynamics of kinship foster care. In this study, workers identified triangulation as the most difficult manifestation of those dynamics. The enormous time consumed and the frequent allegations made by family members during triangulation often caused workers to distrust family members and to worry that they could not adequately protect the child. The article includes numerous recommendations for training and changes in policy that would reduce worker anxiety and thus increase their effectiveness and willingness to work with kinship foster care.