The childhood experiences of foster carers: Exploring the contribution to their relationships with looked after children

This thesis explores how foster carers’ own childhood experiences may influence the ways they view, respond to, and make sense of the behaviours of adolescents in their care, given that behavioural difficulties are often cited as a major factor in unplanned moves and placement breakdowns. Unplanned moves are recognised as highly disruptive for children, yet relatively little research has examined how foster carers’ own histories shape their caregiving responses.

Seventeen foster carers providing care for adolescents participated in semi-structured interviews designed to capture reflections on managing difficult behaviours, motivations for fostering, and personal histories of care and relationships. An Exploratory Qualitative Design was adopted, and Reflexive Thematic Analysis guided the interpretation of the data.

Findings were organised across three areas. First, carers described varied motivations for fostering, shaped by personal, family, and social influences. Second, they highlighted the complexity of responding to young people’s behaviours, often drawing on trauma-informed understandings, behaviour management strategies, and accounts of the emotional impact of fostering. Third, carers reflected on their own childhood experiences, describing how family dynamics, parental care, cultural influences, and socio-economic contexts had shaped their adult relationships and approaches to caregiving.

The study suggests there is no simple or direct link between carers’ early experiences and later caregiving practices. Rather, the process of reflection and meaning-making appeared central. Carers who demonstrated greater emotional awareness and capacity for reflection tended to describe more empathic and regulated responses, while those who framed their histories in more rigid ways reported greater difficulties in managing behavioural complexity.

This research contributes to understanding the relational dimensions of foster care practice. It argues that while behaviour management, trauma-informed, and attachment-based approaches remain important, there is also a need to adopt additional approaches that actively support carers in developing reflective capacity and emotional availability, alongside systemic support for relational caregiving.