Dumitrache, Lorena (2025). Residential care workers’ understanding and experiences of their relationship-building with the children in their care. University of Birmingham. Foren.Psy.D.
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DUMITRACHE2025FORENSICDOCTORATE.pdf
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Abstract
The purpose of this thesis was to gain insight into caregivers’ lived experiences of the relationship building process with the children in their care; and to offer new insight into what works for the treatment of trauma in children who are in care from carers’ perspectives in view of supporting good practice and better therapeutic outcomes for both children and caregivers. The first chapter contains a brief introduction describing the wider context of the research and each chapter of the thesis.
In Chapter two, a systematic literature review was conducted to analyse existing studies with variables focused on caregivers’ experiences and characteristics. Conclusions from this chapter highlighted that there is scarce literature focusing on caregivers’ experiences. In this review, caregivers highlighted a series of barriers and facilitators related to the perceptions and meaning-making of the relationship-building process. Meaning making is a concept widely used in IPA (interpretative phenomenological analysis for qualitative data) and refers to understanding how caregivers in this case, experience, perceive and make sense of their world and lived experiences in their own ways. In general, although it is acknowledged that this is important when working with children, oftentimes its function is not fully understood.
Chapter three consists of the empirical study conducted with six caregivers who agreed to participate in this research. Their experiences and meaning-making of the relationship-building process with the children in their care were analysed. Three superordinate themes were identified: Relationship-building; The emotional impact on caregivers; and Caregiver similar lived experiences: Insight and motivation. There was a narrative around meeting the practical needs of children and around the challenges that they experience in building relationships. Participants also spoke of boundaries and their own limitations in terms of knowledge and expertise. In addition, they spoke of how hard they find the role at times but also noted that it could be enjoyable and rewarding. Lastly, there was a narrative around how their own life experiences had impacted on their desire to be a caregiver and there was a perception that past experiences enabled them to be more effective in their roles.
Chapter four focuses on the critique of a psychometric tool used to assess and identify trauma symptomatology in children, the Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Children (TSCC, 2001 Briere). The tool has been widely utilised (1882 citations to date), within academia and practice and has been translated into multiple languages such as Chinese, German, Swedish, Spanish, Korean. This indicates a high level of acceptance of the robustness and rigour of the instrument to assess for childhood trauma within academia, triage, and the professional community despite the limitations generally associated with self-report assessments. The critique revealed important factors related to the relationship-building process. That is, how understanding developmental trauma, attachment, and a child centred relational approach to treating traumatised children will positively benefit the assessment, diagnostic process, and treatment of children.
Chapter five of this thesis combines the overall findings of all the chapters and synthesises these in implications for future research and clinical practice, a general conclusion as well as strengths and limitations.
| Type of Work: | Thesis (Doctorates > Foren.Psy.D.) | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Award Type: | Doctorates > Foren.Psy.D. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Licence: | All rights reserved | ||||||||||||||||||
| College/Faculty: | Colleges > College of Life & Environmental Sciences | ||||||||||||||||||
| School or Department: | School of Psychology | ||||||||||||||||||
| Funders: | None/not applicable | ||||||||||||||||||
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology | ||||||||||||||||||
| URI: | http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/15943 |
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