'But isn't that normal?': Australian foster parent's experiences of parental abuse by children in their care
Date
2025
Authors
Riggs, D.W.
Lohmeyer, B.
Rosenberg, S.
Clark, Y.
Due, C.
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Journal article
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The British Journal of Social Work, 2025; 55(6):3113-3130
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Damien W Riggs, Ben Lohmeyer, Shoshana Rosenberg, Yvonne Clark, Clemence Due
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Abstract
While growing attention has been paid to the abuse of parents by their children, research to date has almost exclusively focused on parents who have birthed and/or conceived their child. Given that the trauma histories that foster children bring with them may result in abusive behaviours, it is vital to focus on the specific experiences of foster parents with regard to parental abuse. The research reported in this article involved interviews with twenty-eight Australian foster parents, with a specific focus on a subset of twenty participants who reported experiences of violence and abuse perpetrated against them by children in their care. Thematic analysis of the interview data resulted in the development of three themes: (1) living with the threat of escalating abuse, (2) minimizing experiences of parental abuse, and (3) understanding triggers in order to mitigate abuse. The article concludes by considering what an understanding of parental abuse as a form of domestic violence might offer in terms of service delivery.
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Ā©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup. com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our siteāfor further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.