Learning about the experiences of children in kinship care (version 1)

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  What can we learn from interviews with kinship carers, teachers and psychotherapists about the experiences of children in kinship care?

• IRAS ID

  139283

• Contact name

  Mel Serlin

• Research summary

  The aim of my investigation is to learn more about the experiences of children who grow up in kinship care, as perceived by their carers, teachers and therapists. I am interested to understand what it may be like for children to be living with extended family members who have their own history and relationship with the child’s parent(s) who have been unable to continue parenting them. I will be exploring the relational dynamics and feelings of the children and their carers, as they manage a new family structure together which is likely to have been proceeded by loss, trauma, neglect and/or abuse. I will be seeking to find out more about the experiences of this group of children and how it affects them, which will be different to children growing up with birth parents, adopted parents or looked-after children.

  My research will be done with the support of the Tavistock Outreach in Primary Schools Project (TOPS). This project is a psychotherapeutic service which has therapists based in five primary schools within the London Borough of Camden. I will be selecting three children living in kinship care who received therapeutic treatment through the TOPS project and whose treatment has now ended. My research will consist of nine semi-structured interviews in total, with the kinship carer, teacher (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) and therapist connected with each of the three children. All interviewees will be asked the same few questions, which will be intentionally broad so as to encourage participants to share their individual feelings, experiences and views.

  Interviews will be tape recorded and then transcribed. Interview data will then be coded and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Coding will enable themes to be teased out and I will then analyse these themes using a psychoanalytic understanding to explore the issues which come to light.

• REC name

  Wales REC 4

• REC reference

  14/WA/1126

• Date of REC Opinion

  26 Nov 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion