“Treading on Egg Shells”: Communication Between Mothers and Children in Out-of-Home Care.

Abstract

▪ Objective: To explore how care-experienced young people and birth parents made sense of communicating with one another during out-of-home care.
▪ Background: The quality of contact shapes whether that contact has a positive impact on care-experienced young people. This communication is rarely considered systemically with both children and parents.
▪ Methods: A purposive sample of 6 care-experienced young people and 5 birth mothers who had a child in out-of-home care were interviewed. The interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
▪ Results/Findings: Participants often sought to connect with their child or parent. However, their past traumas and the setup of contact significantly disrupted communication. Young people and birth mothers’ communication evolved over time as they renegotiated their relationship.
▪ Conclusion: As they developed an understanding of their past experiences of lack of care, participants’ intent and way of connecting with their child or parent evolved. The distance imposed in contact was often described as protective by young people and harmful by birth mothers.
▪ Recommendations: Practitioners should consider attachment, developmental stage and the changing life situations of both care-experienced young people and birth parents to make sense of their interacting hopes for communication.

Date of Award	9 Sept 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Plymouth
Supervisor	Nneamaka Ekebuisi (Director of Studies (First Supervisor))